Brave New World
by XPsypher
Summary: I really thought my life would be over. That I would actually enter the afterlife but the universe just loves to prove me wrong. It seems that being thrown into the Naruto Universe wasn't enough. Self Insert.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: Besides my oc's I do not own Naruto or Fairy Tail, if I did Itachi would be alive and Fairy Tail would have lost the Grand Magic Games. All rights go to their respective creators. Speaking of Oc's, the one in this story is from a Naruto Fanfic I've been writing. The Narutoverse he comes from is an AU, just so you know.**

 **Enjoy!**

It was the soft bed that awoke me from my uncomfortable sleep. My eyes opened to a dimly lit room that was illuminated by an oil lamp standing on top of a wooden desk.

Just where was I? If I didn't die the team must have rushed me back to Konoha but this looked nothing like a hospital. My suspicions were confirmed as the frantic voice of an old woman rang out from the floor below me. I squinted my eyes in a vain attempt to catch wind of the conversation. The voice was loud and demanding and seemed to increase volume as hard footsteps ascended to my floor. As they got closer I noted in my head that they didn't speak my language, more like a different one entirely. The door burst open before I could do anything else. Light from outside penetrated my eyes causing me to lift my arms up defensively.

"What are you doing?!" The old woman's voice screamed "Get away from the child!"

"Shut up!" A rough hand grabbed onto my right arm hard. My eyes reopened to see a thin man with a goatee staring at me with narrow eyes. He sneered and then turned his head sharply to the old woman who was just out of my peripheral vision.

"Who the hell is this?!" The man shook my arm in anger."I thought you said that no one lived here but you!" The woman tried to retort but an audible slap silenced her quickly.

"Don't you dare say anything else ya here!" His grip tightened. "Ya lied to us and we don't like people who aren't being truthful."

"Please!" The woman seemed to be in tears. "Leave him be! He's just a boy!" The man dismissed her pleas entirely.

"Take her away boys! They're all the same I tell you." He turned his attention back towards me and smiled. Not a normal smile but a one with clear malicious intent. "Yes, you'll do nicely as a slave." He murmured to himself but unfortunately for him, I heard it as well.

A slave?! O hell no!

My instincts kicked in swiftly and my attacker found himself turned around in a headlock with the sharpest object I could find at his jugular. The room turned deathly quiet. The bandits and the woman stood agape in surprise at my fast movements. My eyes heated as my sharingan activated to try too intimate the enemies in front of me.

 _"What's going on here?"_ I demanded only to be greeted with confused looks.

"What?" One of the guys asked. I mentally slapped myself. I had forgotten that they spoke a different language but the problem that concerned me the most was that I could understand them.

Wait I could understand them!

My eyes widened at the realization. How could I understand if I only knew two...languages. My mind went into a frenzy as thoughts bombarded at me nonstop. This can't be! Could I've been sent back to earth?! English is nonexistent in the Elemental Nations! I shook myself out of the thoughts. That matter would come later, I had a more pressing situation in my hands now.

"I said what's going on here?!" I respoke in english that was lightly accented. My eyes wandered to each man standing before me. There was no way that I could beat them, not in the state I was in now. The only plausible tactic I could use was to bluff. But it had to be good. One slip up and it would be the end of me. My sharingan flared as I released some of my saki.

"Listen up! I don't know what's going on or who you even are. _But_ leave the lady alone or you'll meet a fate worse than death. _Got that?_ " I watched in hidden amusement as a few of them whimpered under the genjutsu I cast. The man under my vice grip visibly paled as I pressed the sharp object on his neck, drawing blood.

"Leave and never come back." That did it. The man shot up from my hold and promptly scampered out of the room along with the others right behind him. Once the door downstairs slammed hard it grew into an uncomfortable silence. The lady who was still agape in shock slowly turned towards me. I smiled sheepishly until a feeling of nausea happily graced my presence. Grabbing an empty pail I heaved and threw up my all stomach contents knowing well of the awkward conversation destined to happen shortly after.

After my throw up session the lady yelled at me for being stupid and nearly getting myself killed. I inwardly smiled at that. She cared about me deeply despite only knowing me for a short period of time. Something about her reminded me of my mom, maybe it was the unconditional love almost all mothers had. Now I was downstairs, sitting quietly as she served me a cup of tea. I watched as she walked over to me with the flower painted teapot. She was an inch shorter than me and wore a green blouse that complemented the ankle length skirt on her lower half. Her grey hair was tied into a messy bun and grey strands fell to the sides of her round face. She didn't look that bad. In fact she would have been quite the looker if it weren't for her corked nose. Sitting down in front of me she grabbed a cup and began to pour.

"Now young man, tell me what you were doing half dead in the middle of the forest?" I started to sweat. What could I tell her? That I somehow was transported from a different dimension speaks a totally different language. It was tempting but I didn't want to sound like I've completely lost my mind. Lying was the next best thing.

"I was tracking down someone when a group of looters ambushed me. I thought I was dead until I woke up upstairs." The woman nodded as she poured hot water into two white tea cups.

"Ahh, so you're one of those young mages running around all over."

...Mages? I sat there quizzically. Mages as in magic?! I placed my cup down and breathed in before I could lose my cool.

"What do you mean by mages?" The lady stopped what she was doing and looked at me with a perplexed look.

"Have you been living in a rock or something lad? A mage is someone who can use magic offensively to complete jobs." My mind raced at the new information but a sense of nostalgia started to build. Where have I heard this before?

"Umm, Obaa-san where are we now geographically speaking?" I asked apprehensively hopping that my suspicions would be wrong. The lady quirked her grey eyebrow at the strange remark.

"Smart words for a kid. Were in the southwestern part of Fiore near the Caitshelter guild."

Fiore? Caitshelter guild?! Oh no no no!

"Do you have a map I could see please?" I bit my lip as she got out of her chair. My heart raced when she came back with a brown scroll.

"Here you are deary."

My heart sunk as I opened the map. It was clear that I wasn't in the Elemental Nations or Earth but what was even sadder was that I knew where I was. If it wasn't the extended peninsula that did it for me, in was the name that was in bold up in the high left corner.

Earth Land.

I was in Earth land and a certain guilds name seemed to echo in my subconscious. Fairy Tail.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: There's been a question concerning my main character. You'll be learning more about him in this fic, most likely in a flash back. However I won't be sharing every thing. Maybe bits and pieces but the rest of his whole story with the elemental nations will be in the Naruto fic I'm writing. Now concerning the characters shown previously in the last chapter I'll answered those at the end of this chapter. But for now.**

 **Enjoy!**

"Are you alright?"

The lady's voice brought me back to my senses. She stared at me with her cup in one hand and pointed at my hands with the other. I followed her gaze and noted how bad my hands were shaking. I breathed in deeply, maintaining my cool.

"I-I'm fine! It's just that I don't recognise anything on the map." I watched her blue eyes soften in pity. Sitting her cup down she rubbed her chin in thought.

"You can't read can you?" I looked at her in surprise, thinking that she was going to say something else. "N-No! It's nothing like that! It's just.."

"It's quite alright dear." She interrupted me and patted my hand. "I can teach you!" I shook my head in frustration. She clearly had the wrong idea.

"Obaa-san I can read! It's just that none of this is recognisable to me!" I slapped the map on the table to prove my point.

"You've must have come along way to not be able to recognise that map. Just where are you from?" I looked at my hands. How was I going to explain this one? Tapping my finger on the table I looked at her with a straight face.

"I'm from a hidden village in a forest. It's very far away and I doubt you've ever heard of it." I did my best to make a cover story. The lady nodded at my explanation and took another sip from her cup. I highly doubted that she believed me.

"Obaa-san do you mind telling me your name?"

"Estelle my dear."

A day had past before she let me leave on my own, not before making me promise that I wouldn't be stupid out there again. Turns out that she's been living in this forest for quite some time as a hermit. The guys that came in earlier were apart of a bandit guild with ties to the Boscoian slave trade. It was likely that I would run into them so it would be safe to be on the look out.

Joining a guild was my main objective to do but since Fairy Tail is so far away Caitshelter would be the next best thing. It was about two hours into my tree jumping travels that I stumbled upon a small creak. Deciding that it would be a perfect place to stop and rest I kneeled down at the bank and cupped my hands in the water. I splashed the clear water on my face and gazed down at my reflection. I was still the same old me unfortunately. My skin was still pale and my eyebrows were still huge. Not as big as Rock Lee's but still pretty big. All that changed was that my spiky hair, which was usually in a low ponytail, was out and fell freely past my shoulders. I cursed God for my wreck of hair. Why did it have to be so spiky?

"Wendy behind you!"

My ears twitched at the call. I knew that stuck up voice anywhere.

Carla. That annoying exceed.

Sighing, I stood and headed off towards the direction it came from. Whatever was happening, it wasn't good.

Wendy winced as the hold on her wrist tightened. A simple mission she took now had her surrounded by supposed traffickers set on sending her to God knows where. She struggled under the ugly man's grip only for him to smile at her attempts.

"Let go of her you brutes!" Carla yelled as she tried to escape the ropes she was tied up in.

"Be quiet cat! A creature like you would be worth a lot in the market. Pederson! Gag it." The man in question nodded at the order before quickly tying a white cloth around the cat's mouth muffling her protests. Turning his attention back to Wendy he got close to her face.

"A pretty thing you are. Something tells me that you'll be worth a lot more than that stupid cat over there." Wendy turned her head away from him not wanting the captors to see her tears. It was all her fault for being so weak. She couldn't even fight properly.

"Oi! Let them go!" A boy's voice called out. Wendy turned her head to the entrance of the forest and saw a spiky haired boy walk out before them. He was taller than her and wore clothes that were patched up in different places. What caught her attention where his eyes. They were dangerous and showed that he was more experienced than he looked. However, It seemed that her captors were unaware of this.

"Look at this! The boy's trying to act tough!" The whole group laughed at him. Wendy watched as the boy maintained an emotionless face. Her captor pulled on her arm causing her to stumble behind him.

"Go back to the playground kid, you're no match for us." That remark made a tick mark appeared on the boy's head.

"Oh really?"

"Boss." Two of her captors men walked out of the group. "We'll handle this." With a smile the fat man pointed. "Go to work."

Both man ran at full speed. Coming at both sides they simultaneously aimed a punch for the boy's face however both were greeted by air.

"What?!"

The boy appeared behind one of them and kicked him hard on the side sending him flying. Jaw slack from the display of power the other was unaware of the kunai heading straight for his neck.

"Gah!" The man gurgled in pained surprise before crumbling to the ground. It was silent as the boy walked over and pulled the bloodied kunai out from his neck. Spinning on his heels he faced the rest of the ground.

"You were saying?"

The fat man growled in anger at the sight of his two men. Pointing at the boy he screamed.

"Get him!"

The rest of the group ran weapons drawn. The boy took a few steps back before doing strange hand signs.

 **Kage Bunshin no jutsu!**

Suddenly multiple clones of the boy appeared before their eyes. Wendy watched as the boy proceeded to beat down the men with ease. With each hit her captor's grip on her arm tightened. She wanted to get away from him as soon as possible. Seeing that his attention was away from her she worked up her courage and bit him on the hand, hard. He let go of her wrist and promptly cursed giving her time to scamper over towards Carla. Fiddling with the gag's knot, Carla's muffled screams brought her attention to the fat man a few feet away from her.

"You little bitch!" He screamed drawing out his gun from its holster. "You'll pay for that! Eat lead!" The shot rang out. Wendy closed her eyes and braced herself for the terrible pain to come. However it didn't.

It took me a lot of self control from screaming in pain. I had just made it and pushed Wendy out of the gun's range before it hit her. One of the reasons that I love the sharingan to death. If I didn't have it she would've been dead. I layed there on the ground gripping my side in pain before bringing myself to one knee. The fatty infront of me pointed the gun at me.

"Insolate brat." He growled. "You've caused me alot of problems today." Maintaining my blank look I readied my sharingan. This only made the guy happier.

"Those eyes of yours are quite something, I'll give you that. Mabey they'll be worth something on the market." He sneered.

"No thank you." I replied. "I'd like to keep my eyes thank you very much." The world around him contorted into red. I watched as his expression turned from confusion to sheer terror. I smirked inwardly seeing him stumble backwards before his eyes rolled into the back of his head and collapsed. My balance wavered slightly but I caught myself with my hand. A simple genjutsu seemed to be too much for me to handle. It would be a while before I was back to my normal self.

"U-Um sir?" I turned my attention to the familiar blue haired girl a few feet away from me. Her full attention was focused on my gunshot wound that was flowing freely with blood staining my shirt. What caught my attention was her hair. It wasn't at the full length I've normally seen her before with. "Are you ok?" I looked down at the aching wound before laughing it off.

"Don't worry! I'll be fine!"

"You've got to be kidding me!" Carla flew up in front of Wendy and pointed and pointed to my wound. I totally forgot she was untied. "Look at all that blood! It's a miracle that you haven't passed out yet!" I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes as I did a few hand signs: Ox, Tiger.

 **Shosen Jutsu!**

I watched in amusement as both girls looked in comical surprise as I healed my wound.

"B-but wha..?" Carla's reaction was priceless.

"See? I can heal myself!" I smiled. From what I remembered from the anime, healing magic is considered to be lost in history. No wonder they reacted like that.

"Even if you heal yourself the bullet will still be inside of you!" Carla yelled as her tail twitched in irritation. I pointed to the stray bullet that glared in the grass only for her to growl at me."Just who are you?"

"I'm Kouki." Carla deadpanned at me. "What kind of name is Kooki?"

"Kouki!" I corrected her angrily. "And I'm trying to find the Caitshelter guild!"

"Y-You want to join our guild!" Wendy beamed at me.

"You know where it is?" Wendy nodded. "Yes! W-We could show you!"

"Here it is! The best in Fiore!" The guild was alot bigger in real life. I looked around at the heavily Native American infuenced houses, not to mention the actual guild hall itself. Cats must be a pretty huge thing around here.

"Wendy! We were starting to worry! Who's your friend?" A tall tan woman with brown curly hair came towards us. I've never seen her before in the anime, must have been one of Wendy's friends.

"O-Oh Magna! We're alright. This is Kouki." She directed her attention to me. "He wants to be a guild member!"

"A guild member you say! Are you sure! Our guild isn't very well known."

"It's fine! All I want to do is earn money for food." I assured her. Magna looked me over before shuttering at my clothes.

"Well good. It looks like you need some new cloths. Don't worry though I'll make you some as a token of appreciation for getting wendy back here safely." My eyes widened at the offer of such generosity.

"A-Are you sure? You do-"

"I think I'm sure Kouki." She patted me on the shoulder. "Wendy, Chief Roubal's waiting for you." She pointed to the guild. "When you're done bring Kouki over so he can get his cloths."

"Of course Magna!" Wendy said and watched as the woman went to mingle with the others.

"Wow she seems nice."

"She really is."

"Wendy!" Carla butted in. "Master is waiting for us! We have to hurry!" I really disliked that cat.

"Oh you're right! Come on Kouki! We have to hurry!" Wendy grabbed my hand and lead me quickly to the cat shaped guild hall.

"Wendy there you are!"

A small old man with an indian head dress came over to us and gave Wendy a relieved hug. "I thought something terrible had happened! Oh?" His attention was turned towards me. His eyes lowered as he gazed me over.

"Wendy who's this lad?" Wendy seemed to notice the protectiveness in his voice. "Master he's a friend! He wants to join the guild." The man raised a long and grey eyebrow at that.

"Join the guild you say? I don't know, you don't seem to be the fighter type."

"No no Roubal, he's very good! Kouki saved us from bandits not to long ago. He's very strong." Roubal nodded at Wendy's explanation. I waited apprehensively before a smile appeared on his face.

"A strong will for helping others I see. You'll make a perfect addition to our guild. Welcome aboard." He outstretched his hand for a shake. I stared at him.

"A-Are you sure?"

"Do I have any reason not to be?" His gaze faltered into a glare.

"No! Not at all!" I grabbed his hand and shook. "I'm just surprised at how easy it was. That's all." As the man then went off to find the guild stamp a strange feeling hit me. I couldn't help but feel like I was forgetting something. Hopefully whatever it was wouldn't hurt me in the future.

 **Estelle and those bandits won't be gone forever. They'll make an appearance later. For now just go with the flow.**

 **Ja ne~**


	3. Chapter 3

I never understood Master Roubal's decision to make me share a room with Wendy. It makes sense that the village didn't have enough room for another house but, why couldn't I share a room with someone else? However, being grateful for just having somewhere to sleep made me keep my opinion to myself incase they decide to throw me out for being rude. Our room wasn't that big but enough for the both of us, plus Carla to be comfortable. The room was split in the middle with Wendy's side on the left and my side on the right. Carla made it imperative that I stay on my side at all times and not go on the girls side for any reason at all.

The first few days at the guild were uneventful at best. Besides getting my new cloths and meeting some of the other guildmates I had virtually nothing to do. In that span of time it got me thinking, what was I actually going to do in this world. I had the option to ride the whole story out with Wendy or make changes like I did with the naruto verse (all that were unintentional I might add.) However, if I were to change things, writing on what I know would probably be my best start. Luckily Master Roubal gave me the ok to start my jobs, which would give me the money to buy some journals.

The village of Redwood was farther away than I expected and it only made the journey there worse. My first job was simple; Find the monster that was hurting a local farmer's cattle and kill it. I walked carefully through the wooded area with Wendy and Carla close behind. I wasn't really keen on letting them come with me but being that I knew little about the area they would be a huge help.

"Kouki over here!" Wendy called out to me. I walked over and saw both girls kneeling before something and analyzing it with their eyes.

It was hoof prints, large hoof prints. In fact a trail of them stretched farther into the denser part of the area. Wendy looked over at me with a concerned look.

"Could these tracks be it? From the scent coming off of it, it smells like a pig."

"A pig huh?" I said. At times like these I was grateful for a dragon slayer's sense of smell, but how could it be a pig though? The tracks were too big.

"Well let's follow it. They look fresh." Nodding in agreement we all carefully walked down the steep hill. As we made our way through, the tracks became harder and harder to find until we came up to a drop off. W-wow that's a long way down." I stammered, backing away from the edge.

"Don't tell me you're scared? A proper mage can't have a fear of heights, they must be ready for anything!" Carla scolded.

"Quit it!" I shot back. "I can't control my fear of heights! How are we going to get across from here anyway?" I asked dramatically. Seriously my farthest jump wouldn't cover that much distance.

"Carla can't you fly us over?" Wendy asked.

"No, only one person. Even if I could carry two people, why would I carry this buffoon? I still don't trust him." She retorted while glareing in my direction. All I could do was glare back, killing her would just put me in a worse situation.

"Why can't you just do it one by one?" I suggested as my eyebrow twitched in annoyance.

"Because I only have enough strength for Wendy, plus you're bigger than her a-"

"You trying to say that I'm fat?!"

"C-Come on guys!" Wendy said trying to ease the tension. "Carla can't you just try?" The exceed looked away from the young girl for a moment.

"...Fine."

* * *

After our frightening journey across the deep abyss and my minuet of hugging the grassy ground beneath my feet, we resumed to follow the tracks that were surprisingly still on the other side. We continued for a few minutes until...

"Oh my God." The words escaped my mouth in a hushed whisper. We were all crouching behind a large shrub, peeking out the sides at the monstrous creature a yard away from us.

It was a huge pig-like thing with pinkish skin and brown spots all over its body. I noted how it was snacking on the bones of some poor animal, confirming it's a carnivore.

"What the hell is _**that**_?" I whispered, pointing to the behemoth.

"A Hodras." Carla quietly answered. "They're distant cousins of the pig and highly dangerous. From the damage that was caused on the farm, I can say that this is our target." As we continued to watch the thing, I noticed that Wendy was slowly starting to back away.

"What's wrong?" I asked. The blue haired girl's body was shaking as she looked at her feet. She took a long breath before looking at me.

"I-I'm scared. How are we going to beat that thing?! It's so big!"

"Don't worry Wendy." I began and ruffled her hair causing the girl to stumble back in surprise. "If we work together we'll be able to beat it." God that sounded cheesy.

"If you two are done, could we please get on with the mission."

* * *

I made a huge mistake.

"Kouki you idiot!"

Running as fast as our legs or wings could carry us, we screamed loudly as the Hodras continued chasing us down.

"Why'd you have to do that?! I'll kill you for this!" Carla flew up to me and yelled at my face.

"Try me furball!" I growled back.

 **ROAR!**

"I just thought a sneak attack would do the trick!" I wailed. The hodras launched its hoof at us and sent Wendy and I flying.

"Wendy!" Carla screamed, flying after the little girl's dazed body.

"Oi what about me?!" I sputtered while flying through the air. The hodras jumped up in surprising speed with its mouth open. Not wanting to become a midday snack I flipped in the air and flashed through some hand seals.

 **"Katon: Gokakyu no jutsu!"**

Inhaling deeply, a large fireball shot out of my mouth and hit the Hodras square in its face. It shrieked in pain which gave me enough time to shunshin to the ground a few feet away.

"You can use fire magic?!" Carla exclaimed. I looked at her thoughtfully.

"Well, not really-"

 **ROAR!**

A magic circle appeared under the Hodras increasing its speed as it lunged itself at me in full anger.

"No way! Magic?!" I yelled. It's hoof connected with my chest and I could feel a few ribs crack. Launching me back into the sky I could taste the familiar iron flavor that has graced my presence many times before.

"Argh!" This wasn't going to end well. Focusing through the pain I shunshin'd myself to the ground before holding my chest in pain. Breathing heavily, I couldn't help but notice how the air was getting thinner around me.

 **"Sky Dragon's Roar!"**

A blue hurricane-like blast shot out at the Hodras. Hitting it directly the blast sent the beast flying, knocking it unconscious. Turning to my far left, I saw Wendy. Her hair and short dress blew fiercely in the wind while Carla was floating behind her with a proud look on her face.

"Woah." I breathed out. Wendy was a lot more powerful than I remembered. Once her spell wore off I watched as she stared in amazement at the path of destruction in front of her. I could only smile. No wonder she fit so well in Fairy Tail.

"Kouki!" Even though she was quivering slightly, Wendy ran over towards me with Carla tailing behind.

"Are you ok?"

I breathed sharply when one of my ribs poked my lung. "Yeah, it's no problem."

"If you want, I c-could heal you. But it wouldn't do that much good." Wendy offered.

"Wait, you can heal too?!" I asked in mock surprise. "I thought you couldn't when I showed you my powers?"

"Well obviously we were surprised." Carla began. "Wendy is a Sky Dragon Slayer, besides her we were quite sure that healing magic was extinct until you came" When she finished Wendy knelt down in front of me and began to heal me.

"Um Kouki I was just wondering, what do you mean that your fire magic isn't really magic?" I sighed at the question. this was bound to happen sooner or later.

"Well," I began. " Where I'm from we don't have what mages can use for power. Um what was it called.."

"Eternano." Carla pointed out.

"Yeah that. We use something called Chakra. It's basically life energy that my body produces. It doesn't come from the atmosphere and if you run out you'll die." Both girls were shocked at the new information.

"Wow really! I've never heard of anything like that before. Have you Carla?" The exceed shook her head. "Neither have I. So does everyone have this so called "chakra"?" Carla asked.

"Unfortunately no. The only people who have chakra come from my homeland, and if anyone did I would know."

"And how would you know?" Carla asked. Smirking at the exceed I closed my eyes and felt the tingling sensation of my sharingan activating. Snapping my eyes open I watched as the girls saw the three black tomoes spinning fast before stopping suddenly.

"This." I pointed to my eyes. "Is called the sharingan, eye magic if you will. It allows me to see chakra at a certain point but not as well as the byakugan, another eye magic."

"So cool!" Wendy exclaimed in wonder. "What do you think Carla?..Carla?" The exceed next to Wendy was staring of into the distance with concerned eyes. Thinking that something or someone might be behind us I turned around but no one was there.

"Carla are you ok?" I asked. The cat didn't answer. I watched in confusion as her eyes changed into an expression mixed with shock and terror. Her tiny body quivered slightly and her tail started to twitch nervously. A moment of silence passed before she snapped back to reality.

"D-Did you say something ?" She asked, her voice shaking.

"What was that all about?" I looked between Wendy and Carla in sheer confusion.

"Oh it's nothing!" Carla quickly waved it off and laughed as if she was playing a joke on someone. But I saw no joke here.

"Wendy stay here with him. I'll be back." She smiled at the young girl.

"W-Where are you going?" She asked.

"U-Um to get some fresh air." And then she was gone. Wendy watched as her friend disappeared behind the trees.

"I don't understand. We're outside."

* * *

The white exceed stopped behind a tree just out of hearing range from the others. Taking in a shaky breath she got the nerves out of her system, slid down and sat.

 _"What was that?"_ She thought to herself. Carla reviewed the short flashes of the vision in her head again. It was nothing like her previous one.

" _A bleeding arm, a girl with menacing orange eyes and a burnt village?! All those images just oozed dread!"_ Rubbing her face with her paws she gazed out into the distance.

"How strange." She muttered.

* * *

Two Hours Later...

Thanks to Wendy's healing magic I made it back to Redwood with only minor bruising. The Hodras Wendy knocked out was promptly put down by my hand, despite Wendy's displeasure and we got out respective amount of money. As we headed into the villages market street I couldn't help but look at Carla. Her strange behaviour minutes ago made me ask Wendy what was wrong. Turns out she has precognition, a word that instantly unlocked more forgotten Fairy Tail information. The first time in the anime when you learn about her special ability is at the beginning of that alternate dimension arc.

" _What was it called...Oh yeah Edolas!"_ I remembered excitedly. " _All of magnolia was turned into lacrima by that anima!"_

Wait. Anima...

I stopped in my tracks as the word echoed in my mind. I didn't realize that my eyes widened in shock of the revelation I just happened to make.

" _Right before I came here, the clouds darkened and started to spin slowly."_ The gears in my head started to turn. " _I saw a green light then..nothing."_ I felt my skin pale and it all clicked. An anima sucked me into the Fairy Tail world?! How was that possible?

"Kouki!"

My head snapped up and I looked at Carla who was in front of me with a worried expression.

"W-what?" I asked.

"I've called your name five times! Are you ok?" She narrowed her eyes at me. Feeling slightly uncomfortable at her gaze I looked away. "I'm fine cat."

"Hmph, whatever you say."

* * *

 **I know that many people are wondering when this takes and how old my main character is so, I'll be saying it here:**

 **Kouki is 15**

 **The story takes place two months before the main story begins. So yeah.**


	4. Chapter 4

Wendy couldn't help but stare as the black haired boy scribbled fiercely into the journal propped up by his knees. It was well into twilight when they got back to the guild and after talking to Master Roubal and getting a quick bite to eat they went in for the night. Not even ten minutes had passed since then and Kouki still sat on his bed indian style before he focused intently on the pages. She watched his hand move the quill in fast darting strokes as if he were rushing to put fading idea down before it was lost completely. Feeling the bubbling curiosity in her gut she couldn't stop the words that automatically spilled out of her mouth.

"U-Um Kouki? If you don't mind me asking, what're you writing?"

An unidentifiable expression flashed onto his face before he looked at her with an amused smile. "Why would you want to know?"

"U-Um! I just w-well." The blue haired girl flustered as she stumbled over her words, trying to make sure to choose the right ones.

"Haha! I'm just teasing you!" Kouki laughed heartly and closed the journal with a loud snap. "This journal here is just something for me to write my thoughts on. Because well, this is a new experience for me." Wendy watched as a look of realization dawned on Kouki. He opened his book again with the quill at ready before looking back at her.

"Wendy how old are you?"

What a way to change the topic. Wendy sweatdropped at his sudden change of tone. It was mixed with seriousness and some other unknown emotion. However she inwardly shrugged. From what she knew, the older boy was a little weird at times but who was she to judge.

"I-I'm eleven but my twelfth birthday is only a few days away and you?" She stuttered, starting to get unnerved by his gaze.

"Fifteen." He simply said before writing something down and snapping the book closed. Feeling that this conversation was heading for a dead end she looked down to the white furred exceed who was curled up beside her, not anywhere near her own bed. She smiled say at the poor cat. Carla had been acting strangely ever since she had that vision of hers. The look on her face had worried her briefly since it was a look that she hasn't seen in a long time. Both times Carla told her that it was nothing serious but the girl was smarter than that. Something had Carla scared and she wasn't sure that she wanted to find out what.

* * *

I liked to say that I had a fairly decent sleep. The morning rays of sunlight crept through the small window next to me. Responding to its waking call I hopped out of bed and stretched my arms and back, groaning at the popping of bones that relieved my stress. I looked over to Carla and Wendy. Both girls were snuggled together with the covers covering them, undisturbed. Carla muttered something in her sleep while Wendy laid there silently breathing with strands of blue stuck to her mouth. I guess sleep wasn't beautiful for everyone, even anime characters. I couldn't help but smile at the two. They were so cute and both reminded me of my baby brother who was the same age as Wendy. My mind suddenly went back to him. My disappearance most likely was devastating to him. No doubt that he will look for me and probably not stop. I sighed at the thought. This wasn't my wish for him and I really would like to go back but that was highly impossible.

I turned my attention to a leather bound journal laying closed on my small nightstand. It was one of the two journals I bought at Redwood's market street. It wasn't the best but it got the job done. I picked it up and traced a finger around the simple swirl design on the cover. I mainly used it to write down all of the information that I knew off hand. It was very hard since it's been fifteen years since I've seen the show and well my adult brain couldn't hold all of that excess information. I could only write down basic plot points and sadly some major events were left out of my recollection. But asking for Wendy's age really jogged my memory. She was eleven. That meant that the main storyline hasn't started yet ,but how was I supposed to know. For all I knew she could have turned twelve write before all that Nirvana business started. What really bugged was that Hiro never gave specific dates and that only made my job more difficult. But what could I do? I left the thought unfinished as I placed the book back on its original place before looking back at Wendy. She had gotten curious last night. I definitely needed to be careful, however the book was written in Japanese so it would be impossible for her to read. Unless she gave it to a person like Levy. I shook my head at that. No way would she do something like that. The girl knew better than to go through people's things without permission.

"Well." I breathed in a tone not to wake the sleeping girls. "Time to start my morning routine."

* * *

There was a small clearing a few yards away from the guild that was enclosed by trees, a perfect place to train. I started with ten laps around the field, it wasn't as big as the training fields in Konoha but it would work. The stitches on my chest throbbed as I stretched. I really shouldn't be pushing myself but all the events from Nirvana flashed in my mind. I needed to be ready.

After my stretches I walked over to a small tree, stick in hand. Standing perfectly still I took a deep breath and focused my chakra to flow into the branch. My closed eyes twitched as the familiar warmth flowed through my arm to the stick. Right when it came in contact something happened. There was a conflicting force trying to block the chakra out. It was strange, the energy felt nothing like the warm and steady beat of my chakra. It was wild, uncontrollable, and almost seemed to be (dare I say it) alive. I furrowed my eyebrows and fought for control. The energy seemed to cry out in frustration as my chakra took hold before mixing in with it. A weird feeling flew up my arm, similar to a cold chill, before it settled down. This unknown energy, it must have been magic no- Ethernano. Now that I realized it, I could practically feel it everywhere. It was like a thick layer of smoke that I was breathing in. How had I not noticed this before? The Eternano was now in my body, mixing in with my chakra. Hopefully it wouldn't mess me up to bad.

With that thought I focused my attention to the tree. My chakra infused magic stick blade held offensively in my hand. Taking another breath I swung.

The stick cut effortlessly into the bark like butter. Without warning a boost of energy blasted through my arm and to the stick. I nearly lost my footing as my swing took on more power than it needed to. The upper half of the tree was gone, landing with a loud crack next to its standing half. I looked at the tree and back to the stick in my hand in shock. Had I really lost control so easily?! The Eternano must have boosted my power. I could feel it swim inside me happily, waiting to be used again. This wasn't good. This wasn't good at all.

* * *

"You alright sunny?"

I heaved a second time, spilling my stomach contents into the water below. This had never happened before.

It was after my encounter with Eternano that I decided to lay low on the more dangerous missions, since those missions were bent on using magic and my powers were very unstable at the moment with all these magic particles invading my body. I decided to do a solo mission. A retrieve mission to be exact. The description on the paper was very vague and the only reason it caught my eyes was because of its reward. However the only way of getting there was either by walking through dangerous paths to a train station or taking a boat so, I stuck with the boat.

Maybe it was something in the food or maybe it was just how much food I ate, but I would never know. All I know that it's got me hanging over the edge of this cramped wooden boat with a bad case of motion sickness.

"I'm-I'm fine" I wheezed before covering my mouth with two hands as the boat rocketed. The middle aged auburn man gave me a look before turning back to the newspaper in his hands. "So where are you heading lad?" He asked offhandedly.

Making sure that I wouldn't puke, I got out of my position to sit next to him while clutching my small travel backpack to my chest.

"To the Love & Lucky guild for a job." I replied. The man eyed me out of the corner of his eye.

"You a mage?! Huh, I would've never guessed. Say which one are you from?" He asked flipping to another page.

"Caitshelter."

"Caitshelter? Never heard of it." He said with a tone in his voice I didn't like. He clearly wasn't taking me seriously but I couldn't get angry at a stranger. I had a job to do.

* * *

The journey wasn't that far if you took a train. I didn't expect it to be so close to the main story events but when I got there it hit me how close to Magnolia I was. Love and Lucky was located in Acalypha Town, which was a day away from Fairy Tail's location. It was classified as a city and it was big, but not as big as a city back on earth. The buildings were a mix of medieval style and western. I couldn't help but look in awe. It all looked so cool!

The guild itself was a moderately sized guild, with various trees around building was composed of one main corridor, with four sections around the corridor. Windows were scattered everywhere and it had a gate grid on the guilds entryway. The inside was fairly crowded. It was littered with tables and shelves, filled with papers and books. I walked and maneuvered my way through the crowd in hopes to find my informant while I unfolded my job paper and read the necessary information.

One of my workers will meet you at the guild. She will detail you more on your job.

An informat huh? Something didn't feel right...

It wasn't hard for me to find her. The informant was sitting alone at a table in the corner shuffling nervously. As I walked towards her a feeling tugged at my mind. I squinted my eyes, something was familiar about her, something very familiar. It wasn't like I've seen her before, I was sure that I've never seen her before in my life. The only thing that could have caught my memory was her cloths. She wore a long-sleeved green dress with large pink cuffs, a small pink mantle with golden edges, an apron tied around her waist, simple brown shoes, and a classic maid hat on her head.

"What can I do for you young man?" She asked as I stopped in front of her table.

"Are you the informant for this job?" I asked handing her the job paper. Taking the paper from my hands she looked it over before staring at me with a surprised look.

"Y-Yes I am." I raised my brow at her expression.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to seem so rude!" She waved her hands in front of her comically. "I just didn't expect the mage to be so, so young." Seeing that I wasn't laughing with her she sighed before standing up.

"Let's discuss this somewhere quiet there're too many people here, follow me." She beckoned me to the double doors that lead to a small backyard garden outside. The noise from inside seemed to stop suddenly as I stepped out. The air was filled with birds chirping and leaves rustling in the breeze. I continued to take in the scenery until her voice caught my attention.

"Now to business." She sat down on a wooden bench before clearing her throat. "You have been hired by Mr. Heartfillia of Heartfilia Konzern."

Heartfilia Konzern?! No, No way...

"Heartfillia?! As in Jude Heartfillia!" I almost jumped at how my voice squeaked as I talked. The woman nodded confirming my suspicions. "What would he want back to him?" I asked dreading the answer.

"Miss Lucy Heartfillia, his daughter." Her answer echoed in my mind and I could feel my mouth dry. This was bad, really bad. This would most likely change the story if I went to capture her. What could I do?

What the hell could I do?!

* * *

 **My mind was so focused on school work that I almost forgot about this story! Sorry if this feels rushed. I just came up with this on the spur of the moment yesterday.**

 **I'll try to update in a timely fashion.**

 **Ja Ne~**


	5. Chapter 5

I really shouldn't have been surprised at how far my bad luck would take me, but this was ridiculous. With the last known location of Lucy in mind, I headed out towards Magnolia to catch the earliest train to Hargeon. The train ride was long, about 7 hours plus a few stops and on the train I caught up in my journal. Now that I knew where Lucy was I could place myself at the start of the timeline, where everything started. The ideal thing would be for me to catch her before she makes it there but most likely that would be impossible.

The train came to the stop at it's destination half after six which gave me a limited time to stop and eat. And when I was done I had begun the tiring task of trying to find the blonde haired girl in a maze of a town. Hargeon as a town never seemed as big to me in the anime but boy was I wrong. Haregon was _huge_. I landed silently on one of the many roofs I traveled on. The water I could see seemed to stretch for miles but sadly I was nowhere near the docks since these roofs kept appearing. I sighed while adjusting my backpack. This will probably take awhile.

 _ **Boom!**_

My attention was turned towards eastward of where I stood. Rushing water taller than the average houses loomed over before crashing, spraying unlucky bystanders with droplets of water that felt like pins. If it weren't for my chakra enhanced feet the force would have blown my small body right off the roof. "Definitely Aquarius." I muttered while ringing out my hoodie. And Magna just recently made this for me too. Somethings had to take it too far with their magic. Bora's yacht now laid beached on the remains of the broken port. The women that he held captive were now running away crying; probably from realizing how terrible a guy Bora really was. As I scanned the small area I almost immediately found a blonde girl sticking out like a sore thumb with a blue flying cat at her side.

" _Jackpot!"_ I smirked and hopped silently down before heading over to the getting close to anyone I hid behind a few of the large debris pieces and watched as Natsu's rain of destruction began. But to tell the truth the anime point of view was very different from the real life version. Never had I expected to see characters from a fantasy anime in person. After being in the Narutoverse I thought nothing would surprise me anymore. It seems that I was wrong. Natsu's magic tore through Bora and his men and I couldn't help but sweatdrop at all the chaos he was causing.

He really overdid it.

Once Bora hit the bell tower and the Rune Knights clanging boots could be heard. I knew that this was my only chance to get to Lucy, so I made my move. It would be stupid for them too take the train back to Magnolia since the Rune Knights would be looking for them, so it would be better assumed that they would most likely travel by foot or take a small carriage and to my small luck, they started off on foot.

* * *

"Oi Hurry up! We aren't going to get back to Magnolia at this rate!"

"Yeah Lucy! Pick up the pace!" A blue cat yelled at the blonde girl who was struggling with her suitcase.

"Shut it cat!" Lucy snapped and gave the exceed the stink eye before she looked at the pink haired boy's fastly retreating figure.

"Can't we slow down a bit? At this speed it's hard for me to keep my suitcase from tipping. This would have been so much easier if we just took a carriage" The last part she muttered to herself.

" That wasn't going to happen unless you wanted the military to catch us, plus there's no time." Natsu said as a tick mark appeared on his head. "I gotta give a certain bucktoothed punk a piece of my mind for lying through his teeth." Natsu growled comically. Lucy furrowed her brow at his sudden burst of anger.

"What for?"

"For lying about Igneel!" Natsu whipped his head around at her, eyes blazing in fury. "That Bora guy was no dragon! All this was was a waste of time! Um, no offence."

"None taken."

"Well anyway, I can't wait for you to see the guild." Natsu smiled at her.

"Yeah! You'll make a great addition to the guild!" Happy chimed in. Lucy couldn't help her face flushing up at the compliments. She never would have expected to be complemented by a Fairy Tail mage even if it was from someone as dense as Natsu or Happy.

"Unfortunately, I'm afraid that I won't let that happen." An unknown voice rippled through the air. The group of three stopped in their tracks as a shadowed figure jumped into the dirt path in front of them. Despite It being dark out, the moonlight lit up the small patch of woods around them, including their new visitor. She assumed that it was a boy a few years younger than both her and Natsu. He wore an exotic patterned black and white hoodie, and dark baggy capris. On his back was a grey backpack and strapped to his left side was a small wooden sheath that seemed to hold a miniature sword of some kind. His youthful face was blank and carried one of the bushiest eyebrows she had seen in her life. Natsu grew tense and stepped on front of Lucy, seemingly by instinct.

"Who are you?" Natsu asked. The boy ignored him entirely and shifted his gaze towards the girl behind him who held on the handle of her suitcase tightly.

"That is none of your concern." He said. "Miss Heartfilia I have come here to retrieve you." The girl in question shifted in her feet nervously before frowning. Something wasn't right about this kid.

"What do you mean retrieve? What do you want from me?" She asked. The boy took a step forward and extended his hand to her direction.

"As I said, I've been tasked to take you home Miss Heartfilia."

Home? The word floated in her head before she came to the sudden realization of what he was talking about.

"No." The suitcase fell out of her hands. This wasn't happening, she already came this far!

"No!" Her hands grasped one of her golden keys on the ring. "I'm not going back! I'm starting a new life now and i'm not going to back down from this chance!" Her gaze hardened at the boy who sighed at her defiance.

"Miss Heartfilia please don't make this any more difficult than it has to be. I was requested specifically to bring you back unharmed but that will have to be rearranged if you keep this up." The boy warned narrowing his eyes at her. Natsu stepped in with Happy in toe and glared daggers at him.

"I don't know what's going on here but I know that Lucy ain't going anywhere with you bushy brows!"

"Bushy brows?" The kid's left eye twitched at the small insult.

"Lucy's going to Fairy Tail with us! If you think you're going to get her, you'll have to go through me!"

"Aye sir!" Happy flew up next to Natsu with the same angry expression. Lucy could only watch in awe. She only just met the two of them and they already treated her like they've known each other for years.

"So get lost brat! You aren't worth our time." Natsu swatted his hand at the boy's direction with clear disgust laced in his voice. The boy wasn't fazed by it though and smirked coldly at them.

"You shouldn't underestimate your opponents Salamander, that can really hurt you in the long run." Right as he stopped speaking, what seemed to be a thick layer of negative emotion fell on the group. Lucy froze on the spot with her breath held up in her throat. The sensation around her was choking her and it terrified her greatly. Never had she felt a type of fear like this before. It seemed like Natsu and Happy were having the same problem as her. Even though she couldn't see their faces, their quivering bodies showed that they were scared as well. The boy took another step closer and slowly drew out his sword. The noise of the sword sliding out from its sheath only made Lucy's heart beat faster.

"I think it's time you learned your lesson you-" The boy stopped mid sentence as the sound of wheels on ground appeared far behind them.. Lucy would have thanked the gods when he sheathed his sword if it hadn't been for this fear keeping her body paralyzed. The boy shifted his gaze back at her making her flinch.

"Looks like my luck ran out. Don't think that this will be the last time you'll see me. _Ja ne._ " The boy smiled creepily before flickering into the night, releasing them all from his strange magic. Lucy fell to her knees and gasped for air while Natsu stared at the spot the boy had been just seconds ago.

"What was that all about?" Happy finally asked after a moment of silence. However his question would go unanswered. At least they could get a ride home.

* * *

Well that went well.

I was long gone from Natsu, Lucy, and Happy's spot for about two minutes before I finally settled. I slumped down behind a tree and let a breath out that I had been holding all that time. Using half of my sakki really drained me, which only made my sour mood even worse.

" _Bushy brows, he called me Bushy brows!"_ I thought angrily to myself. That remark is only reserved for Lee and no one else! I couldn't help myself from releasing some of my sakki at that. Being insulted is by no way tolerated by a person like me. I swear, the next person who calls me that will most definitely be hung upside down by his skin and beaten like a piñata.

"Damn it." I sighed, wiping my face with my hands. One problem down, another to go. Jude Heartfilia will be less than pleased when he hears that I failed, however I could care less. Lucy didn't deserve to go back to a jerk of a father. At least I now had an excuse for not being able to catch the poor girl. However, this would lead to the Phantom Lord incident but it would be best not to interfere with that since it was necessary character development for Team Natsu. The wind started to pick up again and I got up from my seat before walking towards Haregon. That wasn't the way I wanted to introduce myself to them. Hopefully when I run into them again I'll be able to make up with them.

* * *

It had been a week since Kouki left for another job and Wendy was starting to worry. The quiet girl had just gotten back from a small mission with Carla and was helping one of her guildmates sweep up around the guild. She had only met the boy two and a half months ago and he had grown on her as a brotherly figure, a type of person she hasn't had in her life for a long while.

 _"Jellal"_ Her hold on the broom tightened slightly as a familiar blue haired boy flashed through her mind. He was so similar to him it wasn't funny. She just hoped that he wouldn't leave her too.

"I'm back!" A voice announced its return from the guilds wooden doors. Wendy whipped around with a huge smile on her face before dropping the broom, running at the teen and giving him a big hug.

"Kouki! You're back!" She exclaimed. The taller boy hesitated in surprise before hugging her back. "Looks like someone missed me! How are you Wendy?" The girl looked up at him happily before releasing him.

"I'm fine! How did the job go?" The girl watched as the boy sat down at a table before yawning.

"It was a doozy, I'll tell you that. I ran into that Salamander guy an-"

"Salamander?!" Wendy interrupted. "As in the Fire Dragon Slayer from Fairy Tail!?" She exclaimed. Kouki glanced at her with an unreadable expression.

"Yeah and before you ask, he doesn't know where your mother is. He was looking for his dragon." Wendy gazed sadly at the floor, hearing the newfound information.

"Oh.."

"Don't worry about it!" Kouki kneeled down infront of her before patting her head. "We'll find her together! Okay?" Wendy nodded her head before receiving a hug from the boy.

"Good! Now where is that annoying exceed of yours? She's always tagging along with you." Wendy perked up at the mention of her furry friend and looked around the hall. She was nowhere in site.

"I don't know, she was here a second ago." Wendy sighed. "I'll go look for her. She couldn't have gone far."

* * *

It wasn't hard for Wendy to find Carla. Two minutes from the guild was a small brook that went down hill in the forest. Since it was far away from the other guildmates she would usually go there herself to relax or think about her troubles. It was only for a short time before she found Carla and ever since then both girls would sometimes stop there if the had had a rough day.

Wendy crept over towards the white exceed who was sitting on one of the rocks, staring at her reflection.

"What is it Wendy?" The exceed asked. Wendy stopped abruptly.

"I-I was just wondering how you were. You always act different when Kouki's around." She watched as Carla stiffened at his name and raised confused eyebrows at her strange demeanor. Wendy continued to walk over and sat beside her before staring at the brook.

"Carla, what is it?" She asked, paying close attention to Carla's face. She's been around her long enough to tell her little quirks about lying. Carla's tail twitched for a second before turning towards Wendy with a fake smile that would fool anyone, anyone but Wendy.

"Nothing at all." Wendy wasn't believing it.

"Carla please!" She pestered on. " You can tell me anything! That's what friends are for." The exceed looked down back at her reflection before sighing.

"I don't feel comfortable around Kouki." She admitted. Wendy furrowed her brow.

"Why?."

"The boy gives me bad vibes Wendy." Carla turned and stared at the girl dead in the eyes. Wendy now knew why.

"B-Bad vibes? Is it something with your visions?" She asked.

"No, more than that. Whenever I'm around him I get a feeling. Behind all that happy go lucky personality is a foreboding figure filled with hate Wendy. He's dangerous, I'm sure of it." Carla balled her paws into fists. "If he does anything to hurt you Wendy, I swear to the gods I'll-"

"Carla." Wendy cut in. "Kouki wouldn't do anything to hurt me, to hurt you! He isn't the type of person to do that!"

"And how would you know?!" Carla stood up sharply and looked at Wendy with disbelieving eyes. "We only know the boy for two months! It's impossible to know a person in two months! For all I know he could turn out to be a deranged maniac who lived in the woods! Wendy please, we know nothing about him." She finished with a flick of her tail.

"Carla you can't say that!" Wendy defended. "Sure we don't know that much about him but that's why we have to get to know each other more! All that other information about his past will come when he's ready. We can't rush that!"

With her eyes still holding an expression of disbelief Carla casted her Aria magic and turned around before looking back at Wendy.

"Fine, but don't say I warned you." She said before shooting up in the sky towards the direction of the guild, leaving Wendy behind to the sad bubbling of the brook.

* * *

 **This chapter was hard for me to write but mostly due to Wendy's personality. She comes out too mature for a eleven year old.**

 **The story will pick up speed next chapter. I promise! But until then..**

 **Ja ne~**


	6. Soyeah

**Hellow everyone!**

 **To all who have been reading this story, I'm so sorry that I haven't posted any chapters. For the past few months a lot has happened in my life that really through me off track. Im not going into any details but because of that I kind of stopped working on the story for a while. I found myself losing interest in it.**

 **But fear not!**

 **I will be continuing the story. It wilk take some time though to get back into the swing of things. All of the ideas I had for future chapters have gotten lost in piles and piles of inner turmoil. So in the meantime, I will be posting a few drables of writing mostly to get my creative gears rolling. If you want you could check them out, if not that's fine.**

 **So until then,**

 **Ja Ne~**


	7. Chapter 7

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm finally back with another chapter guys! From now on, I will be focusing more time on this story as I feel that it still has some potential for me to keep going with this.**

 **However I won't be updating regularly, i'm sorry.**

 **As of this point in the story it's going to focus more on Oc's,** **Kouki and his adventures in this new arc I've come up with. I will be coming up with my own history of the Nirvit tribe and the world around them in the past. This is a new thing for me to do so if you could tell me your thoughts on it and critique, that would be awesome!**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

 **Six weeks later...**

Nighttime at the west coast of Seven was a stunning sight. Not many people lived here because of its extremely rocky terrain and with little light pollution the stars lit up the night sky. However, this night in particular was a bit different. Sure the stars were still there, but an unnatural silence spread through the area. The slight coastal breeze was gone, no crickets buzzing in site, even the waters were still. Although if you listened closely,Muffled screams could be heard coming out of a dingy worn down estate, overgrown with weeds at the center of a small forest. In daytime it would be hard not to notice it. A estate that once would have been a beautiful thing to be at now was reduced to a shell of its former self, forgotten by everyone, except for the people who now call it home. This building was now occupied by a small dark guild named Dark Hearts, a guild that had yet to make themselves known to the world.

Since the upper floors were never used as their base operations the cellar was renovated for them to do most of their handiwork . The whole place was relatively empty save for the one room near the end of a darkened hallway. It was large and dimly lit by a single light hanging from the ceiling. The walls were a rusted grey and the only window was a small one placed up high in the back wall. On the right wall was a small sink decorated with grit and grime and next to it was a steel medical dresser, the only clean thing there. On the left wall were all sorts of tools that were hung side by side. None which were made for a good purpose. At the center of this madness were two people. A man seemingly at the age of forty, who hung limply from the ceiling by the chains fastened tightly around his wrists. He twisted in the air as another shock raced through his body and bit down hard onto his sore lip, drawing blood. Taking a shaky breath he spit down at the feet of his captor before shooting a angry look.

"Forget it." He began with a noticeable quiver in his voice. "You can try all you want but I-I ain't saying anything! So you can shove that stick right up your-Aaarggh!" A rod crackling with electricity smacked him across the face giving him another dose of pain. As he bit down on his lip again his captor pressed the rod on his cheek and pushed so that he was facing her.

"Up, up, up!" She tsked in childish disgust. "No need for those types of words Mr. Pottymouth! It's only gonna get you nowhere, nya~." She towered over him by mere inches with a cheshire grin revealing razor sharp teeth. Her honey brown hair fell wildly down to the nape of her neck and sticking high above where her ears were supposed to be were cat ears, standing alert. Her plain white shirt was dotted with the man's blood and her knee length cuffed shorts were smudged by a mix of blood and grime. Pulling the tool away from his face she took a step back and stared as her long tail danced behind her.

"You're making this very difficult for me, nya~. Most people crack twenty minutes in but you- you've lasted nearly three hours!" She gave him a playful thumbs up to which he glowered even more.

"A feisty one eh? Well then." She walked over to the small metal drawer and opened it sharply. Inside were knives of various shapes and sizes. She ran her finger over them while humming softly before her slanted eyes fell on her desired one. Smiling widely she picked up a scalpel and walked over to the worn and bleeding man. Carving a small line below his left eye she watched the blood flow in a kind of morbid fascination before turning her attention back to his gaze with a gleam in her eye.

"Let's see how long it takes me to break that stubborn will of yours." Taking his silence as compliance she leaned closer yellow eyes practically glowing with malice.

"Tell me where the elixir is or your eye is the first to go."

* * *

I would have never guessed that in such short period of time so much had happened. The Phantom Lord incident drew expectantly large media attention, an event Wendy seemed to be transfixed on due to Natsu and Gajeel. When I asked her why she didn't travel to Magnolia to talk to the other dragonslayers, she shyly told me that she was to scared and intimidated by them to do anything. Carla had grown fed up with the girl's shyness and unwillingness to go and tried to coax her into going. However, it didn't work.

As I looked back on it, it makes some sense why Wendy didn't go to visit Natsu earlier in the show. She simply didn't have the confidence. Most Likely the experiences beforehand must have shaped her into gaining the confidence to see them in the Oracion Seis arc. So while the months went by I kept tabs on local news. I even got a subscription to Soccere's heavily after a session of rigorous training. Since my chakra control was nearly on par with someone like sakura, who could channel exactly thirty percent of chakra for jutsu, I suspected chakra enhanced strength would be a breeze. However I was wrong. This Eternano was making things I already knew even more difficult. Each punch I threw would do more damage than I wanted, which was great but not if you don't want to kill an opponent with one punch. I took a staggered step away from the worned out tree before wiping my sweat drenched face with my hands splintered. This won't slow me down, not if I can help it.

"Kouki!"

My attention turned towards the entrance of the clearing. One of my guildmates was there waving me down. His name was Darmond ,a boy two years older than me. Besides Wendy he and I got along pretty well.

I smiled and waved back with my shirt draped over my shoulders.

"What's up?" I called back. The boy jogged over to me and stopped clearly out of breath.

"Master just came back from the Guild Master's meeting. He sent me here to get you! Whatever it is it seems urgent!" Urgent? I frowned before nodding. What could he want me for? There's only one way to find out.

Master Roubal sat in a lavish sofa chair decorated with colorful pillows and designs. Despite the loving aura the room gave off his expression was deeply troubled as he studied a white letter with rushed handwriting as if someone was in a hurry to get it sent to him. When my presence was announced he turned his attention towards me, strange expression gone with a relieved one taking its place.

"Ah Kouki! I'm sorry for disturbing your morning training session but this is of the utmost importance." I bowed politely before smiling.

"It's fine really. What do you need?" The old man sighed showing lines of stress and beckoned me to sit,

"It appears that an old friend of the village needs our help however due to recent events at the Guild master's conference, I won't be able to go personally. But you are a strong and courageous fellow and I believe you have the power to help them." Roubal folded the letter in his hand and put it back in it's envelope. I watched the man in masked confusion as I went over what he said in my head.

An old friend? What could he mean by that? The anime never delved into the old man's past in full detail or at least from what I could remember.

"We are one of the few descendants of native native tribes left in earthland. Many have made contact with the modern world while most still try to remain isolated but times are changing..." Roubal stared off into the distance while stroking his beard thoughtfully.

"Um, Master?" I called out worriedly. The old man jumped out of his thoughts before smiling sheepishly.

"I'm sorry for rambling off, now where was I? Oh!" He snapped his fingers in sudden recollection.

"The Nirvits have made many alliances with tribes in our long history but our longest and most deep is with the Nanook tribe whose remaining members live north west from here." Roubal then stood from his chair and walked over to a large scroll before returning. Unraveling it revealed to be a map of Fiore but the big difference was that the usually landmarks were gone.

"This is an old map of Fiore." Roubal explained. "Passed down from generations, it shows us the many territories native tribes had." I looked down at the map in wonder. There were tons of native tribes that dotted the map. The ones that caught my eye were four large names which territories covered the entire north eastern part of the map.

"As you can see the Nanook were one of the four great tribes that ruled in that time period and sadly were one of the major parts of a long and bloody war." Roubal gazed at the map sadly.

"They were a tribe who prided in their strength in battle and in the arts of potion making. The most infamous of their creations was called Keezheekoni's Might or simply known as The Elixir of Power. It was named after one of their more prominent gods, Keezheekoni, the god of battle and fire. Before being sent off into battle the warriors would gather for a ritual to be blessed with protection by Keezheekoni and the main event was taking a drink of the potion. The potion worked marvelously giving their warrior unbelievable strength and willpower which made the them feared on the battlefield. However, it came with a price. The warrior with weak minds were easily corrupted by the potion's power turning them into rage filled monsters whose only goal is to destroy. However the one's with strong will and control over one's magic were able to maintain balance between the potions lust for power, but they wouldn't last long. It was most likely that the potion was a cause for the many civil wars that broke out between the people leaving them completely vulnerable for invaders. So in realization of their mistake, they sealed away the elixir passing the exact location down to those who have been selected to guard the sight twenty four-seven." A long silence grew after he finished. I quickly put two and two together.

"One of the guards was taken correct?" I asked. Roubal smiled and folded his arms.

"Quick in the head I see, yes you are absolutely right. I need you to go over there and help them out. Time is of the essence and we need to find whoever captured them before the location is revealed." Roubal then handed me a small paper slip.

"There is the location of where they reside at. I should warn you now, they aren't as friendly to people who aren't from their own tribe. If you show them your guild tattoo they'll warm up to you." Roubal smiled reassuringly. " You should also know this, you won't be the only one going."

My eyes widened slightly, there would be others going?!

"Who?!" I asked a little bit too harshly. Roubal chuckled heartily.

"Another few guilds in the region will be sending some of the wizards to help. Fairy Tail isn't one of them for reasons that are obvious though. Now, get going. I want you to leave no later than an hour."

My eyes locked onto his with confidence.

"I'll do my best Master." I said before leaving. As I left though I didn't see Roubal's face turn troubled as he stared back at the envelope.

"If this doesn't work it will mean trouble for all of Fiore." He muttered

* * *

Wendy was a bit sad when I told her about my new mission, being that it would send me away for a few weeks or even months if I weren't careful. So, she made me promise to give her a call on the communications lacrima whenever I could. Before I left I managed to stock up on supplies like food, water, clothes and etc. Since the ride to the guild would only take me so far and I would have to trek the rest of the way.

With a heartfelt farewell from the other guildmates I went and caught a carriage, which went and took me to the neighboring country of Boros. Turns out you don't need a passport to get to different countries if you're a mage. All you need to do is flash your guild symbol and you're good to go. Which was good since I had no idea how to get a passport anyway. Along with the fact that I'm not technically from here. When I got to the first town there were two major differences between Fiore and Bosco. One, Bosco was a bit sketchy. If you were to go into Fiore for the first time, a friendly and magical presence would immediately force itself on you filling you with unwanted friendship and happiness. Bosco was a bit different. The population was significantly lower and was mostly filled with dense forest. The only city in the country was its capital, other than that the rest of the country was filled with small villages. The country was a bit less enthusiastic with magic users which came to my realization when the guard who confirmed my guild symbol gave me a look that switched from fear to anger. And it wasn't just him, the people in the first town I stopped at looked at me if I was some kind of abomination.

The other thing was that, the country was one of few countries where human trafficking was a huge problem. I could point to the government not giving a damn and the dense and harsh forests. You could hide almost anything in there. Another thing that I found interesting was that Bosco was a lot bigger than I had expected. When you look at the map it seemed like it would only be about the size of Connecticut, though I would like to compare it to New Jersey. The human trafficking was so bad in some places that villages had curfew hours.

But to bring up spirits, it was going down in the recent years by a statistic taken by the Bosconian King's best scholars. The declining scale was thanks to the few mage guilds that had inhabited the country, which confused me because why would the Government praise the mage guilds so much when the general public was so distrustful and downright afraid of them? The theories were scrambling in my head but I had to dismiss them. That wasn't my job to figure it out, I came here for a completely different reason.

And I promised to get it done.

"Well here you are!" The carriage driver announced. I had taken three carriages around since the rail system in this country was trash by my standards.

"Are you sure you can't take me any further?" I asked crossing my fingers in hope.

"Nope sorry kid, I ain't stepping any farther in this place. This goes far above my pay grade." The man shot down my request the instant it came out of my mouth. As I got out of the carriage in disappointment he pulled on his curly mustache in nervousness.

"Be careful out there kid, wouldn't want anything bad happening to you. You got guts boy." He warned before cracking the long straps on each of the weird animals pulling the carriage."Mush!"

I waved as the carriage faded into the treeline before turning toward the damaged trail that led me further into the unknown. I had stopped at an abandoned town that had been in a wrecked state for a few decades. Not many people would tell me what happened as they would either walk away with haste or completely change topics. Although I heard whispering s of a former dark guild that had reigned terror on this region of the country.

* * *

I walked in a steady pace past vine and moss ridden houses that had the scars of fire. The cobble stone road was in a nearly non existent state, with grass that had nearly grown over all of it. I crinkled my nose at the feeling of hopelessness in the air, along with the pitter-patter of rain to which I put on my hood. My hike took me past the town and down a valley. I stopped and closed my eyes feeling for any magical abnormalities. At first I got nothing then...

 **Bang!**

It seemed like I walked in on a presence of an ancient being. It felt old ancient and dangerous. The malice was great, so great that any normal person would have went and fled. But I wasn't normal by a long shot. I tracked the trail until I came across a magical barrier. It seemed to be a disguise to hide whatever was behind it. I put my hand on it suddenly feeling it start to unravel under my conflicting chakra when I heard something. My eyes caught a something fly at high speeds toward my face. Using my reflexes I jumped back and caught the thump of an arrow sticking itself onto a tree three feet next to me.

"What the?-" Before I could voice my confusion I was grabbed from behind an and a found a knife being neatly placed at my jugular. With no time to process the sudden event I watched tensely as a number of tribe people similar to Cait Shelter materialized out of nowhere, except it looked like they were out for blood.

"Who. Are. You?" A gruff voice hissed in my ear. I looked around at the dark angry eyes of my aggressors before I spoke carefully.

"I'm guessing that you guys are apart of that Nanook tribe right?" The hand holding my wrists clenched harshly.

"What of it?" The gruff voice said.

" I'm from the Cait Shelter guild in Fiore, if you could let me go I could show you my tattoo on my shoulder." I offered. There was a brief silence an exchanging of worried glances before the hands released me. Rubbing my wrists I took off my hoodie and lifted up my left sleeve showing the red symbol of a abstract cat. There were numerous sighs of relief from the group although there were some, including the guy behind me, who cast me suspicious glances. As I heard one of them call out "He's safe!" A portion of the barrier disappeared.

This was going to be interesting.


	8. Chapter 8

**Authors Note: I don't think I'll be able to forgive myself for posting late like this. But what's done is done. If you noticed I have decided to change the rating to this story since I'm getting the feeling that the darker side of myself is starting to pour itself into my writing. So, I'm warning you that from now on there will be a bit more blood, gore and stuff added in.**

 **Enjoy!**

 **Update: I just realized that were ton's of writing mistakes on here, Some sentences weren't even finished! They should be fixed by now though...**

* * *

Wendy Marvell had a feeling of worry and uneasiness for the past two and a half weeks now. However, It only grew and she couldn't keep her mind off of it. Ever since Kouki had left for his mission, he hasn't used the lacrima crystal to call back. It wasn't like she was constantly hovering over the crystal, she gave him five days, it was just that she was worried that something bad happened to him. She had expressed her worries to Carla but the cat dismissed her saying that Kouki was a stubborn brat and that he couldn't die that easily. Sighing softly she glanced at the lacrima ball on her dresser and ran a hand through her blue hair. Honestly she didn't know why she was so worried, from what she knew of Kouki he was one of the strongest people she knew. He could take care of himself.

"Y-yeah." She told herself. "Kouki's strong, there's nothing to worry about!"

"...ndy" A voice muffled by static crackled out of the lacrima crystal that buzzed to life. Wendy, who was taken by surprise by the sudden disturbance, picked it up quickly and held it in front of her face.

"U-um hello?" She asked, waiting for the image to clear on the crystal. She had to wait a few seconds but it eventually came. A confused frown was soon replaced by a beaming smile when she saw the spiky haired boy she new fairly well.

"Kouki!" She beamed. The boy on the other end smiled while rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.

"Heya kid! Sorry for calling so late, when I got here I was immediately put to work." He said.

"It's fine!" Wendy reassured him before she noticed something. Kouki looked quite different from his normal self. For one thing he looked incredibly tired, the bags under his eyes spoke volumes. "Um Kouki, are you ok? You look terrible." Kouki perked up at the question but waved his hand, dismissing it.

"It's nothing to worry about, I'm just a bit tired that's all. Hey! Is Master there?" Kouki asked with sudden importance.

"U-um no, Master went to another guild meeting. Although he said that this time it was really important. The others seemed really worried so, I can only assume that it's really bad." Wendy answered and frowned at Kouki's disappointed reaction. "You could always call back later!"

"Yeah, that's a good idea"

"Oi kid, get over here!" A voice on the other side called over to Kouki who's happy smile turned into a serious frown.

"Have to run Wendy, I'll see you later!" With a smile the lacrima turned off, leaving Wendy alone in her quiet room.

* * *

Well that sucked.

I got up from where I sat and headed over to my group, ready to head out from our campsite. When I had arrived two weeks ago I had no time to settle down. I was nearly dragged to the Chief's office, after taking twenty steps into the place and yes I counted, and immediately debriefed on what I had to do and what was expected for me. I was so overwhelmed at the rate that everything happened that I barely got a grasp on it before a group was assembled and we were sent out. Luckily one of the other mages that came to help gave me a run down after seeing my struggling appearance. Apparently, the barrier that was around the village had only been there ever since the guard was kidnapped. Before then, the Nirvits were living quietly in a small village whose been largely left alone because of how the surrounding area is thought to be filled the lost souls of the many who have perished there. Which included the ghost town I passed as I made my trek there.

The kidnapping had occurred a month before the quest was issued out, a fact that surprised me. I had asked why they didn't call for help earlier to which the answer was quite understandable. They wanted to keep the incident between themselves and try to solve it as quietly as possible. However they had severely underestimated their opponent, resulting in a ten manned rescue team consisting of well trained fighters to come back with three dead and the rest injured. So after limited deliberation the Chief decided to ask for help in the matter of a quest, promising a handsome reward for those to follow through it. In that month though they managed to find a decent amount of info on the kidnappers. They belonged to a dark guild mostly assumed to be disbanded after some of their main members finally falling under the clutches of the Bosconian military. However it seemed that they were back in business and seeking to gain back the power and fear they had caused throughout the north east region.

"So, anything new?" A dark haired man with insanely curly hair asked as he leaned up against a large tree. The group had gathered around the small extinguished campfire, discussing with one of our teammates who just came back from an info dig. The members were as follows: Me, a three man team from the Titan Nose guild in Fiore,two twin warrior Nirvits and captured guard's younger brother. I had strongly voted against of bringing a family member of the captured with us since it was more likely that they would do something stupid that could put the whole team in danger, but since the guy was a highly trained warrior it couldn't help to have an extra source of muscle for the group. The information gatherer sat down with grace, crossed his legs before whipping out a small book containing a list of criminals and dark guild mages; similar to the bingo book. He scanned his hazel eyes up and down a page before sighing.

"Casper Sky appeared to be one of the weaker members of The Black Skull group from what it say's in this book. However since this information is a bit dated, it's highly plausible that she grew incredibly in her strength and prowess over the years."

"You think?!" The curly haired man growled with displeasure. The other just shot him a glare.

"We can't afford to get angry now Anti!" A tall woman looking freakishly similar to Anti berated him before turning her attention to the young man sitting down, skirt swooshing in the forest breeze. "Anything else you need to tell us Ablan?" The young man nodded, usually bunned up hair falling into messy strands in front of his eyes.

"It appears that Casper is a holder type with a sword that glows a malicious aura. She also carries a canister that she always drinks out of, it's suspected to be a alcoholic beverage. Here's a picture." Ablan then showed the group his book and pointed to a woman with black shoulder-length hair. If you had seen her from afar you could categorize her as pretty cute but if you got closer, you could tell that something wasn't right. Her skin was unnaturally pale, almost a sickly green and her eyes were circled with dark bags from the lack of sleep. She was wearing a black striped sweater and appeared to be glaring at the camera.

 _"Wouldn't want to see her in a darkened alley, or crawling out of my T.V."_ I thought to myself while grimacing at the photo.

"Unfortunately, there isn't much else on her partner, meaning that it could be a new member. All that is known about her is that she wears a light purple hooded cloak and had the ability to manipulate bubbles." Ablan continued.

"Bubbles? Hah!"A blonde guy wearing the Titan Nose guild mark on the back of a blue tracksuit laughed, taking off his lacrima headphones he boasted. "This should be a piece of cake." Alban looked at his teammate and frowned

"I wouldn't be so sure of that." Ablan stated.

"He's right." I piped in, hands deep in my hoodie pockets. "It's never good to underestimate someone with unassuming powers, you never know what they can do."

"Oh, and how could you know that shrimp?" He challenged me , arms crossed. My deadpan expression slowly turned into a mysterious smirk causing the guy to feel a bit unnerved.

"Let's just say that I've encountered certain things that no fifteen year old should."

* * *

Casper Sky positioned herself comfortably up on a tree, looking out at the fishing pond down the hill before her. The moonlight was the only light source that softly lit up the surrounding forest area, besides a few scattered street lights that flickered down a dirt road every so often. She hummed in delight as she took a swig from her metal canister, feeling the deliciously scalding coffee snake down her throat before wiping her mouth after a dribble trailed down her chin. Her tangled black hair ruffled in the wind as she waited and as the minutes went by, boredom filled her mind.

"Dammit Rez where are you!" She slammed the back of her head on to the tree in annoyance. Casper had been waiting at the meeting spot for an half hour and there was no sign of the hunchbacked idiot. The silence was then broken by the rumbling of her gut and she groaned in hunger. "And I'm hungry too, great just great..." She rubbed her stomach as her other hand gripped the sheath of her sword in anger.

"If I don't get any food I think i'll go crazy!" She whimpered. Casper looked down longingly at the pond water, hitting herself internally for not bringing a fishing rod with her and wondered what fish swam underneath those cool waters and how much meat they packed underneath their slick and slippery scales. Just as she felt herself dying with hunger it seemed like the gods had answered her when the crunching of leaves and breaking of twigs grew louder on the far right of her. She shot up from her relaxed position and turned in a way so that she could get a better look. Further into the forest that surrounded the pond was the small light of what seemed to be a porch light from a farm house. A squirm of hope sprang into her chest as she heard the crunching noises get closer. Did something slip out of its pen?

"It better be a pig, chicken, or even deer! Deer is nice too!" Her mouth continued to salivate as the rustles got closer, faster as if something was in a hurry. A few seconds past before something the size of a large cat bursted with golden fur through the thick shrubs, panting heavily.

A dog.

"Oh." Casper slumped back down as she watched the cute fluff ball run past the tree and into a denser patch of trees, collar shining in the moonlight. She couldn't eat the poor thing, it was too adorable. Plus she loved dogs! A pout formed on her lips as she stared off into the distance, that is until she heard more movement coming from the same direction the dog appeared from.

"Ginger!" A young voice belonging to a small child rang out through the forest. "Come back!" Stepping out of the shrubs was a boy around the age of nine with a distressed look in his face. His pudgy cheeks were glistening with streaks of tears and a bubble of snot popped out of his nose. "Don't leave me!" He wailed. Casper looked down at the child in utter silence. For some reason watching something so young and innocent feeling intense feelings of sadness and desperation made her feel...rather good. Euphoric she dared to even add. She then continued to watch the kid with sick curiosity, watching him go through every nook and cranny of the area until he slumped down the base of the tree she was up in. The calls for Ginger were soon replaced by sniffles and sobs that were muffled by the boy putting his face in his knees. Casper decided that it was time to end her fun and help the kid out, so she made her move to begin climbing down. That is until a spark ignited inside her. The grumble of her stomach rang out loudly, startling the boy from his emotional episode. Wiping his eyes he looked around owlishly.

"He-Hello?" He asked. Casper didn't respond and instead climbed back to the position she was in before and rubbed her stomach in confusion.

"What was that?" She thought to herself. Casper rested her head on the tree, closed her eyes and took a few heavy breaths. The feeling was of something she hadn't felt in a very long, long time and it was starting to make her nervous. As she tried to focus on her breathing her sword started to glow a blood red, wisps of energy wrapping lightly around Casper's body. The child's calls were filled with anxiety which seemed to only fuel the strange feeling in her gut. Casper gasped lightly as the hunger in her gut grew in intensity and force, too strong to ignore. Biting the corner of her lip she clawed at her striped sweater in a desperate attempt to suppress it.

It wasn't working.

She leaned downward, holding into the tree as the boy seemed to give up and watched as he cried into his yellow nightshirt. A wicked grin spread on her face as she clenched her sword, knuckles turning white. It would only be a second, she didn't even need to drag it out long enough. Just one strike and it would be done. She licked her chapped lips slowly as she felt the grim thought marinate in her head. Her eyes seemed to glow with blood-lust. Would she really go and do something she had supposedly stopped for two years? Her decision time was coming to a quick close as her ears twitched, picking up the sound of two other people rushing through the forest. Her head snapped upward hair blinding her vision only for her to brush it away.

"Oliver!"

"Oliver darling! Where are you?!"

"Damn!" She cursed. They were getting closer. Time was running out and at the last second she smiled.

"To hell with it." She growled with primal hunger. It was over before it started actually. The last thing the poor child saw was a sickly pale face suddenly in front of him with the wide black eyes and smile of a crazed killer. It was like looking into the eyes of a feral demon. His shrill scream was cut short with a single slash of a sword, dying before he even hit the grassy ground. The boy fell into a bloody heap, his body twitching as blood seeped out of the deep shoulder and neck wound. Casper's eyes shrunk into tiny dots as she watched as the blood dyed the green grass red in grotesque fascination. The sword in her left hand quivered and slowly absorbed the blood covering the blade and hilt, turning the red aura into an ominous black. A cackle left her lips as she began to stick her sword in the growing pool of fresh blood, playfully splashing it here and there. It was only ten seconds in when she heard the sound of two people bursting out of the bushes behind her now crouched form. The huffs and puffs of two people gasping for air silenced with a sharp intake of breath.

"Who are..." No words came after that. The silence was deafening. And then a high-pitched scream that seemed to ring out bloody murder hurt Casper's ear drums. Wincing in annoyance she turned sharply and looked at the distraught couple behind her. The mother had both hands clasped over her mouth and her eyes wide as dinner plates. She continued to scream with her green eyes leaking madly with tears. The father on the other hand was in total shock, eyes locked on the body of his son, whose eyes stared blankly into the tree limbed sky. No words were said for a minuet and Casper was getting agitated before the father broke the silence.

"You-Y-You Monster!" He stammered out.

"Bingo!" Casper chirped, smile getting painfully bigger. Getting to her feet, she took a slow step forward which made the couple take one back. Her smiled soured a bit as she continued to hear that annoying shrill scream.

"Shut up bitch!" She yelled pointing the tip of her sword at her. That shut her up and caused Casper's insane smile to ride back up.

"I wasn't expecting this to happen you know." She began. "It was a spur of the moment thing really. But don't worry, you'll see him soon."

It was well into nine when Rez reached the meeting spot and was greeted with an unpleasant sight, that is if she was a normal human being. There was Casper sitting at the base of the tree with the look of true bliss on her face. Eyes closed, mouth morphed into a small smile and sword lightly clutched in her hands. It would have been a peaceful scene to look at minus the rest of the mess around her. Blood decorated most of the grass and some of the tree. In that mess was the shredded bits of cloths and body parts that seemed to be mauled beyond recognition. The stench was pungent even behind her mask, causing Rez to grimace as she walked over to the sleeping form of Casper.

"Casper!" She yelled. The yell jolted the raven haired girl awake who glared in her general direction before softening to a displeased look. Her face was caked with blood minus her forehead eyes and nose. Most of the blood dripped off her chin like molasses down into her equally drenched sweater and pants. "What the hell happened?" Rez asked not liking the answer she was anticipating.

"Well, while you were taking your sweet ass time," Casper began hissing at the masked girl. "I got myself a late night snack!"

"A snack consisting of human flesh I presume." Rez deadpanned and Casper nodded. "I thought you stopped cannibalizing a while ago?"

"I did, though tonight I got this weird feeling, like a really bad itch that needed to be scratched. And well, I scratched! The father was the hardest out of all of them, put up a good fight." She gestured at her sweater that was ripped up in a few places. Rez rolled her eyes at the response lifting up her cloak slightly so that no blood would latch onto it. She scanned the mess around her and her eyes fell on remnants of a body that seemed to be too small for an adult human.

"You didn't...right?" Rez said pointing to it. Casper glanced to where she was looking and immediately turned away embarrassed.

"I did." She whispered not wanting to see the reaction about to unfold.

"You're one sick fuck you know that right?" Rez glared at the girl, anger clear in her voice.

"I get that a lot."

Rez still glared at Casper when she pulled out a lacrima crystal and called. The two sat in silence as static ran through the crystal until an image of a man with pale purple hair and a surgical eye-patch appeared from the other end. A rugged baritone voice tore through the crystal after he took a look at Casper.

"Do I even want to know?" The question was simple and full of disgust to which Rez simply shook her head. Rolling his eye he sighed. "Anyway, our little friend here has been quite resilient. Not everyone can suffer through Farah's torture and not spill a single word. Gotta give the guy props." Both girls gave a simultaneous nod at that. The guy had to of had some insane training to survive against Farah's torture for so long. Knowing Farah, some of her little sections were too disturbing for even Casper to watch. And she was a super freak.

"Besides that our friend's little group has made a group of mages to help them in their little rescue mission." The guy's face slowly got closer to the girls, eye focusing onto Casper before narrowing it. "DO not engage them in combat, do you understand? Only if and I mean only if the people I sent out are beaten are you allowed to fight. Got that?" Both girls nodded.

"Good. Now until I give you further instructions, lay low. That means no more killing Casper or whatever weird unusual stuff you do."

"Aww..." Casper pouted. It would have looked a bit cute hadn't for her blood drenched face and overall sickly nature.

"Don't mess this up." In a flash the image was gone, leaving both girls to the sounds of the forest. Rez got up to her feet and crossed her arms.

"We better get going." She advised before grimacing at the foul odor of blood against her nostrils. "And we better get you a bath too."


	9. Chapter 9

**Authors Note: This is a shorter chapter than most but one that was very hard to write. When I mean hard I mean in how difficult it was to start it. In those short days I went through countless beginnings but I wouldn't get to far. Soon enough I started fell writers block begin to chime in. But at last I managed to come up with this a few nights and finished the rest of it on this night, much to the dismay of my parents. They're were like, yelling for me to get off the computer right now.**

 **But God I do really need to get to bed...**

 **So I hope you find some joy in this chapter and until then. Enjoy!**

* * *

The neighboring country of Seven seemed to be similar in most ways to Bosco, save for the striking hatred for each other. And what Seven mostly lacked in forests it made up in mountain ranges, as Seven had more of a rocky terrain than Bosco. In the morning I and the rest of the group headed up north for around two hours before we ended at Bosco's border at about nine forty five. After all of our info digging we concluded after a louder than necessary meeting, that that country of Seven is most likely where the Black Skull guild now called their home. After walking further into the forest we soon realized that there was only one village that lead to Seven for miles. And it just so happened to be a town directly on the border. So, we decided to make a quick stop there to restock on supplies. The whole thing rested at the bottom of a small hill, and if you stood at the top of it you could see that beyond the village there was a river that acted as the border between the two countries.

For a supposed 'village' It looked to be at least half the size of Magnolia, or at least that's what I thought since I haven't been to Magnolia yet. Even though it was still morning the streets were filled with the morning rush of merchants, traders, and people heading out to their jobs on the docks. So, once we all got past the village entrance we all agreed to meet back at the docks at five minutes to eleven. The team from Titan Nose,which was made up of Ablan, Jaken (the blonde head phoned guy), and a petite girl named Teri, decided to head out together. I broke from the group not too long after that saying that it would be easier for me to shop by myself rather than trudging along with the others. But I guess the real reason I wanted to make myself scarce was that they argued a lot, which made group discussions last longer. Plus it would give me a major headache.

After a short walk I ended up resting on a bench in the small local park that bleed into a small residential district. Rustling through the small brown bag that I had in my lap, I pulled out a freshly baked chocolate croissant that I bought from a local bakery for only four jewels. Luckily Bosco and a bunch of other countries shared the same currency as Fiore which made life for me very easy, since exchanging currency can be a pain in the ass. As I continued to indulge in the flaky goodness that was all up in my mouth, I watched the early morning joggers and small wild creatures go about their day. It was only when I glanced at the town clock did I realize that it was ten-twenty eight.

"Guess I should head down." I said to myself. The walk to the docks would take at least ten to fifteen minutes depending how crowded it could get, so I decided to just head down as quickly as I could so I could be the first one there. Though as I got to the center of the village, the number of people increased exponentially and it grew increasingly harder to slip through without bumping someone over and knocking something down. So with a bunch of excuse me's and sorry's I went through the crowded town square, where merchants advertised very loudly there goods that were out for sale. As I ventured further though, I couldn't help but notice something. It wasn't something that I could see though, more like something I could feel. And over time it only grew stronger and stronger. It was the sense of eyes gazing rather strongly at the back of my head.

Someone was watching me, rather intently than any normal person should. But I didn't let it get to me, I didn't let my foot waver or stride slow. Instead I acted as if I didn't sense anything. The only thing that changed however was my expression, which faded from an aggravated sneer to an emotionless frown. I steered off course from the main road and dipped into a side street, hopefully to find a place with less people. To my luck the number of people started to dwindle and before I knew it, I found myself in a secluded area of the town; the buildings being far older than the rest and from what I could assume less vacant. To be on the safe side I walked down an alleyway between two vacant buildings, whose windows were busted and mostly bordered up.

"I know you've been following me, quit with the hiding." I called out, voice bouncing out between the ageing walls. I stood there apprehensively with my hand on the hilt of my katana, waiting, watching. It didn't take long for them to get the memo. Cause in not even a minute out stepped a rather strange looking girl into the alleyway entrance. When I mean "strange" I mostly meant her hair. It was a striking mint green, that almost seemed to glow in the shadowed and rather smelly area. She also had a bowl cut and bangs that covered her eyes leaving only her button nose and full lips showing. She wore a green double coat that seemed to be a bit too big for her and black leggings. On her feet were dark brown boots that were a bit dusty. Overall, her dress was rather...interesting to put it nicely. Looking back on how my judgmental views have gotten me into some sticky situations in the past, I try not to judge. The dark skinned girl walked slowly until she was ten feet away from me. I unsheathed my mini katana and pointed it at her stopping her in her tracks.

"You've got some nerve following me around like that. So, what do you want from me?" I asked with suspicion laced in my voice. No words came out of her mouth and we continued to stand there in silence before my voice broke it.

"Silent type huh?" No answer. I ground my teeth together in frustration. What was her deal?! Even though I couldn't see her eyes, it felt like she was glaring holes right through my head. So, I stayed still for about another minute before I grew tired.

"If you aren't gonna talk, then I'll just have to make you." I shot forward, katana ready and neared the girl in the blink of an eye. However, in those quick seconds I furrowed my brow in confusion. You'd think that someone would scramble to block an oncoming attack but no. She didn't do anything. Her arms lay limp at her sides as my sword ran right through her, momentum causing her body to hunch inward. It was in those close quarters that I came to the realization why she didn't do anything. The first thing I noticed was that it went in too easy. Usually it would take a bit of force to send a sword into a human body. My katana simply went in like a knife through soft butter. The second thing I noticed was the faint smile on her lips as her body disintegrated into fluttering green leaves.

"A leaf clone?!" I gasped, eyes widening at my stupidity. Luckily I had good reflexes as my arm shot up to block a giant leaf shaped knife that would have been neatly placed into my jugular. The clash and scraping of weapons caused a small gush of air that blew against our faces. For a split second I could catch large emotionless green eyes staring back at me. We stayed like that for only a moment, but it felt like ages. With a grunt I broke apart and jumped up to avoid a swipe that only connected to air, before landing softly to the ground only feet apart. Our eyes locked as I slowly stood now in a defensive position. No words needed to be said, I could tell that this was a hired killing but I also got a hunch that it could have been a distraction. It didn't matter whatever this was. She was an enemy and if she had any ties to the mission I was on, it means that she needed to be eliminated. Or at least captured for interrogation. However, I discovered a problem. I was at a disadvantage. I quickly gazed my surroundings. There were two walls besides me and the alleyway only lead to what I assumed to be a dead end. I kicked myself internally for leading this girl into this alleyway. Hopefully she wasn't a long ranged attacker, or I would be in serious trouble.

Luck as always, didn't seem to be on my side as I bumped into something soft behind me. Leaping forward I turned to see another leaf clone, with the same emotionless face.

"Cornered, damn.." I cursed. Looking to the girl in front and the clone behind me I smirked. "Luckily I'm very agile." Jumping up quickly I hopped off the clones head aggressively, causing it to burst into leaves before I wall jumped it out of there. But I wasn't out of danger yet, when I heard the girl proclaim in a high voice.

" **Leaf Magic: Leaf Torrent!** " Looking back I paled as a torrent of leafs sliced through the air like razors, headed towards me. With an extra spring to my step, I wall jumped in record time. Avoiding torrent after torrent before I landed at the top of one building, seemingly safe. That is until said girl jumped right out of said alleyway with a trail of leaves behind her. Twisting in the air she waved her hands sending another leaf torrent my way.

"Wah!" I yelped scrambling onto my feet as I hightailed it outta there. The leafs embedded themselves on the old roof as I continued to dodge. But the roof wouldn't last forever so I jumped of landing with a roll on the empty street. The streams of razor-like leaves kept coming so, as I spun to dodge another one I flashed through some hand signs to deliver a ranged attack of my own.

" **Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu!** " A flurry of small fireballs soared out into the open, assaulting my enemy. But said enemy was a bit too agile to my liking as she sidestepped and dodged each ball of fire, while progressively getting closer.

 **Shink!**

I barely was able to dodge the leaf blade that swung upward in front of me. I jumped back and looked down to realize that my hoodie was sliced in the middle.

"Really?! And it was well made too!" I yelled in anger. The girl just had to go and get me mad. Now it was personal. Twirling my blade in my hand I got into attack mode and made the come on gesture with my left. And come she did. In a burst of leaves she rocketed forward from her place at least a yard away and our blades clashed sending a shock wave of sound echoing about. We pushed our blades against each other's generating sparks when she pushed hard with a grunt. What followed was a deadly dance of blades that would be hard to follow for the untrained eye. I danced with order and precision, while she danced with grace and a sick hint of glee. It was nearly an even match and from what I could tell, she was enjoying every second of it. As I swung and dodged I couldn't help but get the feeling of joy bubbling in my chest. It appeared that I was enjoying it too. It was a while since I had a good fight, let alone a sword fight. Her technique was good, beyond average I could even say. It was like watching one of those old kung fu movies on T.V..

"Gah!" I hissed in pain as the leaf blade grazed my cheek. Jumping back I rubbed the fresh blood that trickled down the fresh wound and gave off a heated glare at the girl, who just stood there still with no care in the world. "Alright then." I growled. Twirling my mini-katana I came back twice as hard, each swing with more power. The first came down hard only to be blocked by the leaf blade. The girl bit her lip at the pressure and I could hear her feet breaking the dirt beneath her. Our next clash was harder more viscous than the first.

It was with the intent to kill.

I dodged and weaved a few times before finding my time to strike causing her to back up a few steps. Like I said before, it was a close match. However, it was a match I intended on winning. The dance of blades continued on and it seemed to be in my favor until I noticed her lips murmuring an incantation under harsh breath. A burning pain to my side caused me to yelp in surprise. I jumped back with haste, now looking at two girls staring at me.

"Leaf clones again?!" I growled holding onto my side which was starting to bleed quickly. The girls then walked forward slowly, blades at their side. A menacing aura started to fill the air when I got an idea. "Two can play at that game! **Kage** -" I began. Though I never got to finish that sentence. As I began the hand signs a torrent of razor leaves tore through the air.

"Dammit!" I yelled in frustration jumping out of the way, when I felt an excruciating pain. "What!" I glanced at my left hand, which I pulled back at the last minute. The top of my index and middle finger was gone. I didn't scream, more like growled in pain. Holding my hand to my chest I dropped my katana and looked over to my left, watching in anger as another clone stepped out from one of the buildings.

 _She planned this?!_ I thought in anger. The battle was turning in a way that I didn't like and I knew I had to do something. The one to my right shot out and swung. I leaned back letting the leaf blade pass in front of me before flipping back entirely, kicking it in the face causing it to explode with a poof. Jumping back I saw the girl and her other clone breakthrough the cloud of leaves to land a unison combo of strikes to my body. Most I dodge rather easily, but I got nicked by a few causing more blood to join the trail on the ground. Stumbling backward I watched as one of the girls, a clone I hoped, launched itself at me blade extended forward. With a yell I grabbed two kunai from my side pouch and threw hitting it square on the chest. With a silent yell it exploded into leaves as the original burst through it, leaf blade charging to my face. With no time to think I gasped, feeling burning heat in my eyes as black changed to red and three tomoes spun rapidly. The blade stopped an inch to my face, a large gust of wind exploded outward at the force of her stop before she started to sway and fell down to her side. I stood there breathing heavily shocked at how I was inches close of losing my life. Looking at the unconscious form of the girl I realized how much more I needed to train. She was good but I've seen opponents who are leagues better than her and frustratingly me. If I was going to survive in this line of work, I needed to be the best of the best.

And the best of the best I would become.

For now I needed to tend to my grievous injuries and warn the others about other enemies. Hopefully I could get there before anything bad would happen, i'm already late as it is.


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Note: I don' know what this story's going to become. In these few months of absence I was amiss of how I was going to continue this. I had one set goal for this arc, but it appears that it is going to be longer than I thought.**

 **I'm going to be focusing more on the side characters than Kouki in the later chapters, especially on the** **villains. So expect more chapters like these to come out. I probably could have written this better, but that will be left for future construction. After all this was supposed to be for fun.**

 **God, I'm probably going to ramble on about more pointless frustrations, so I'll end it here.**

 **Almost forgot! If you see speech like this:**

 **-** Hi how are ya?-

 **It now means that someone is speaking through lacrima, or any audio device**

 **So put down a review if you'd like and enjoy!**

* * *

The city of Numeri was once the prize of the country of Seven. Resting in the valley between one of the many mountains, its natural boundaries made it a safe haven for those who called it home. However, the term "safe haven" was used no longer and was now lost as an old memory. The Numeri now was the shadow of its former glory days. Once a leader in the textile and manufacturing industry, has now been overshadowed by foreign rivals and left with vacant and aging buildings. With no work the city quickly fell down the spectrum and as of then left at the bottom to rot. However, it was not as bad as many seemed. While there were many crooked civilians, good could still be felt. Even if everyone goes about life a different way.

The streets were moderately crowded in that late morning. The typically dark and grimy atmosphere was replaced with a sense of excitement and fellowship, only greatened by the chatter of children. The cityfolk were hard at work, hanging up makeshift banners and decorating storefronts for what it seemed to be a festival. Which one Rez didn't know, and she really didn't care. The hunchbacked girl weaved through the crowd of busy people, her purple cloak keeping her face from view. Though she could feel a couple of anxious and worried stares grace her, she ignored them. She had more pressing priorities to attend to.

She cut into a rancid side road between two stone buildings and shuffled up to an inn. Looking carefully around her she huffed and pushed against the wooden door. The Nightside Inn wasn't the greatest hospitality anyone could ask for, but it got the job done. She silently walked across the main lobby, sparing glances through her mask at the questionable inhabitants before ascending the creaking stairs to the room she shared. The room was dark, too dark for Rez's liking. So she did what any normal person would do; open the blinds and let the bright sunlight in. There was a sharp hiss and the sound of something heavy colliding with the floor. She looked over her shoulder at the sudden noise, and frowned when she saw Casper hiding behind the bed from the light.

"Why must you keep it so dark in here? I just don't get it."

"Come on Rez, you should know." Casper grunted, as she peered over the semi-par bed. Rez groaned in annoyance and crossed her arms.

"Ugh, whatever. Get up we're leaving now." Rez commanded.

"What? Why?!" Casper shot up to her feet, flinching at the light before glaring at her teammate.

"I recently got a call from the boss, he said to come back to base camp."

Casper growled in frustration and crossed her arms. Rez could tell that by the glint in her eye and the quiver on her lips that she was quite pissed.

"He always does this! Switching back and forth between orders, can't he just make up his mind?!" Casper complained as Rez stuffed whatever belongings she had into a traveler's bag.

"Well you're complaining isn't helping this situation. Help me pack will you?" She looked up at the raven head and handed her a piece of clothing. Casper looked at the pare of pants and Rez before sighing.

"Fine."

* * *

Casper and Rez exited the Inn and walked back into the the lively fray. The rhythmic beats of drums and whines of wind instruments echoed through the cramped streets, adding to the festive feel. Rez nodded to the beats happily, though Casper rolled her eyes in exasperation.

"The music is good. And the food is….well..." Casper glanced by a street food stand and saw unknown meats being grilled amongst questionable sanitary conditions. "...Okay, I just don't see it." She groaned. Rez looked up at her teammate.

"What do you mean? I thought you liked it here?" Casper faltered in her step. The move was so miniscule that the average eye wouldn't trace it. However Rez wasn't your average human being. She saw through it completely. Casper glanced at her in the face before looking away, pulling up the black half face mask she wore instinctively.

"It's not that!" She began in a hushed tone. " The only reason why I liked it here is because that there was a bed I could rest in! I hate walking Rez, and I wish that the boss would at least give us time to sleep before sending us off to God know's where!" She complained.

"Whatever you say." Rez replied quizzically, watching her friend stomped off ahead of her.

 _Sleep?_ What did she mean by sleep? Casper never sleeps!

Rez shook her head as she followed the raven head. Casper was a wild card, a type of person she hadn't seen in a long while. There were many times where she couldn't help but feel uncomfortable around the girl. These however, weren't those times. This side of Casper, was an abnormality at best. A Casper where she was hesitant and evasive was a sight alone to see.

"Omph!" Rez grunted as something solid collided with her, sending her stumbling to the side. Her right hand shot up to her back as a pang of pain spread from her side. Hissing in discomfort she looked to the side seeing a burly man carrying a heavy piece of furniture.

"Watch where you're walking freak!" He barked at her. Rez stood there silently as he gave her appearence a disgusted once over.

"Whatever." Rez mumbled beneath her breath. She was used to this type of treatment, her appearance was known to give off bad vibes.

"What's going on here?" A voice spoke up right next to her, startling Rez. She looked over and saw Casper glancing accusingly over to the older man. When had she gotten so close to her?! Rez was sure that she was too far away for her to come rushing back.

"Tell ugly that she needs to watch where she's going. You can't be lollygagging around these parts, you understand." He replied, albeit a bit too harshly. Rez could see an all too familiar expression creep onto Casper's face. It only solidified when she saw her gloved fingers curl around the hilt to her sheathed sword. This wasn't going to end well, she had to act fast. Good thing someone else did instead of her.

"Hey! Settle down miss!" A short man with a ponytail stepped between the two, his hands in the air. He had a round face, a button nose and was a bit chubby around. Though his chubbyness could easily be mistaken as muscle. He wore a worned out tunic, which was tan in color, and had a grey sash tied around his waist. His hands were calloused and eyes squinted with a look of determination, and a pinch of fear. "My friend was just offering friendly advice to the girl,okay?"

"Friendly advice?" Casper questioned, with a sarcastic yet threatening tone.

"Well, you gotta excuse his brashness, that's just how he is. Now please take your hand away from the weapon, these are peaceful times. I don't want any bloodshed a day before the big festival."

"Heh." Casper chuckled. "Like your the one to talk, I mean look at this place." She mocked, gesturing at all the dirty buildings around her. "This city is the shadow of its former shine. All that's left is the underbrush of society! What good could come out of dump like this?" Rez frowned at Casper's comment, sensing the stupidity of it.

"And this is coming from the girl who enjoys relishing in the blood of her enemies like it's all cool!" Rez thought. She then glanced over at the spectators and saw a problem. The street was quiet, Rez had only noticed this now. She looked over and saw eyes watching their every move. One wrong step could trigger something, something bad.

They needed to get out of here.

She grabbed Casper's arm and tugged. The raven head looked down at her with a worried expression.

"Casper, listen to him. We don't have time to get into a senseless fight, we have some place to be!" She stressed. This was a delicate situation. When Casper gets into defensive moods like this, almost anything can set her off. However, it was not like Rez was worried for their safety. Oh no, she could hold her own for a day and some. She was more afraid of what Casper would do to all these people.

"Come on." She tugged again. "Let's go!"She hissed. No matter how hard she tugged, Casper stood there like a brick wall. This wasn't going anywhere; only a miracle could stop the oncoming massacre.

Luckily for them a miracle would come.

When Rez felt the buzz of the lacrima crystal she nearly jumped for joy. Quickly she shuffled through her traveler's bag, before getting the crystal out. Despite the prying eyes of the onlookers, she answered the call.

 _-Rez! There has been a sudden...What the hell happened now.-_ The image of a one eyed man with purple hair appeared on the lacrima. His face wracked with confusion before he shook his head disappointedly. - _Whatever this is, can you end it?_ _ **Quickly?**_ \- His voice boomed with distaste.

Rez looked over to Casper. The two of them stared for what seemed like ages before Casper relaxed and crossed her arms.

"You heard him Cas." Rez added on, hoping the girl would come to her senses. There was a moment of silence before Casper turned to the small man in front of her.

"I'm sorry for the misunderstanding," She apologized. " Let's go Rez." With that she walked away, with Rez hot on her trail.

* * *

They only stopped when they were sure no one would eavesdrop on them. Casper made sure of secluded area was protected by the walls of one of the many deserted textile mills that dotted the cityscape. On their way to the spot, Rex had the pleasure of relaying the small incident to their boss, much to Casper's dismay. This left Casper quietly leaning against the broken machinery, inspecting her sword, while Rez continued to speak with their boss.

"So what did you need to say ?" She asked. The purple haired man frowned before speaking.

 _-Well, things with our little friends haven't gone as smoothly as hoped. Turns out our enemy is putting more of a fight than we all had expected. Have to give them props for what it's worth.-_

"Any casualties?" Rez continued.

 _-No, not as of late. Only one member engaged with the enemy actually. How they managed to be knocked out by a child is. very disheartening.-_

"Really, A kid?" Casper walked over to the two, sword sheathed at her side. "I thought these people were supposed to be strong." Rez turned her head sharply over to her teammate and gave her a disapproving stare through her mask.

- _If they weren't I wouldn't have spent all that money that we had left just to make sure that this plan works!_ \- He barked, the static from the lacrima amplifying his voice considerably.

" Maybe you should have chose better, there are plenty of other mercenaries that we could have hired. In fact, why can't Rez and I just go after and end it there?"

\- _Because, you two are the best out of everyone for a retrieval mission. Farah would take too much time exploring, Boras wouldn't think things through, and Hayden..._ \- He shook his head in annoyance. - _The guy is too much of a pyromaniac._ \- It was clear that their boss was having the least fun out of all of them. He was desperate, and would do anything to make this go according to plan.

- _That is why you aren't going back to base camp. -_ The two girls stiffened in surprise, a thought simultaneously ran through their heads. Was their finally a break?

- _There has been a new development with our little guest here, he's cracked_ \- The boss smiled. Rez's eyes widened, this was great news! Before she thought the guy had died from all of that torture.

"So what's the deal?" Casper chirped, regaining her energy.

- _The elixr has been secured in an underground chamber for hundreds of years by the Nirvits. I want you two to head back to their village and take out their chief. Once you take out the chief, the path to the object will be open to you. At least that's what our guy says_.- Hearing this Casper smiled openly in heated excitement, giggling to herself.

"Finally some action!" She cheered.

"But wait, isn't their a high possibility that we may run into the little entourage on our way there?" Rez asked, killing Casper's vibe. The man in the lacrima grinned.

 _-That's why I had Hayden go with the band of mercenaries. With his help they'll hold them off for a while and maybe even kill them. Don't forget that they want to rescue their little buddy here. -_

"Right! They'll be so busy, they won't realize what happened until it's too late!" Rez finished.

"Then lets go." Casper grinned devilishly as she stretched her arms. "We'll give them a night that they won't ever forget."


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's Note: We're back with the main crew finally! In this chapter I'll be focusing more on the other members of Kouki's team and how they interact with each other. I went through a lot of versions for this chapter, added a few things and took others out. There are probably a lot more writing mistakes in this but,hopefully you'll find this a worthwhile read.  
**

 **So Enjoy!**

* * *

The first thing that they felt was a small tremor in the ground. The cobble stone shook, each time with greater intensity. It was as if something was coming closer, like a giant taking long strides. Then suddenly there was a loud bang, almost as if a bomb went off, and a plume of smoke and fire rose from the distance. The explosion was so fierce that civilians in the market square stumbled and fell at the disturbance, chunks of stone and debris basting towards them. Alarm bells sounded and filled the air with an awful ringing.

"What's going on?"

"What on Earthland-"

"By the gods, the docks are on fire!"

The exclamation caused heads to turn and mouths to drop. The site of the smoke cloud seemed to have stopped everyone in their tracks. The town square stilled, silence covering the area. In the distance, the screams of men and women rang out almost drowning the sounds of the alarms. one shrill scream leaped out of a young woman's mouth finally sent the whole square into a frenzy. People who had been near the docks came running up the small incline like a tidal wave, pushing people out of the way. No one knew what to do, no one knew what to say. Most were in a daze as an atrocity like this hasn't been seen before in a long, long time. In the madness the mage group from Titan Nose looked at each other with intense worry. No words needed to be uttered from them to confirm the situation, they already knew what they were dealing with.

They just had to get there in time before it became too late.

Ablan gave a quick motion with his left hand, signaling for the other two to follow him, and leaped up onto the roof tops. Once all three were together, they began to quickly make their way to the ground zero of devastation.

"Shouldn't we help them?" Teri, the female of the group, asked with anxiety. She looked down at the civilians on the streets below, so full of terror. She wanted in her whole heart to stop and turn around. To go down there and help those poor people. However, Ablan had other plans. The wind blew fiercely against his cloths, pressing them against his body as he flew from roof to roof with grace. He glanced back at Teri, who was desperately trying to keep up.

"No." He stated firmly, wind blowing through his auburn hair. "We can't allow any diversion to the situation at hand." Sensing the the approaching retort he glanced back at the girl again.

"Teri!" He stated with annoyance in his tone. "I know you want to go and help! I wish that we could but, we have more important matters to deal with. The military can handle with the civilians, we as mages have to stop the threat before it causes even more devastation. We need to work together in this."

The group had stopped, landing on top of a brown tiled roof. Ablan and Teri looking intently at each other while Jacken, watched with uncertainty. Teri pressed her lips in a fine line, staring at the black smoke and back at the horrified civilians. Jacken looked over to the distance and watched as the smoke continued to rise, almost mockingly. Jacken brushed a hand through his blonde hair.

"Teri, we don't have time for this!" Jacken broke the girl from her thoughts, staring at her with frustration. "Let's go." The young girl looked back at the streets below, and sighed.

"Fine. I hope you're right about this"

There was another explosion,smaller than the first, that plumed upward towards the sky. Its smoke mixing further with the old dust and debris in the air. Ablan's focus went right back to the docks and he lept away with increased speed.

"Hurry up!" He shouted behind to them. "I hope that we aren't too late."

* * *

To say that the docks were a complete mess was a criminally put understatement. It was much more to picture it as an equivalent to a war-zone, minus a few other gruesome details. Shop's were either reduced to foundation or non existent at all. But whatever buildings were spared from the devastating explosion were lit ablaze, having their faces scarred with horrendous burns and melting off slowly but steadily. The docks, having been blown out into large chunks were now being washed away by the river water. Boats were overturned and left upside down, as their owners tried to get back on the dry land. In that destruction a figure swaggered out of the fog of dust with one hand jammed in his burgundy pant's pocket, the other hanging lazily by his side. He was a lanky young man, with eyes the color of the sun. He kicked a smoldering piece of debris to the side with his boot and continued forward. A smirk, full of malice, crept up onto his lips as he got closer to his prey; and his bright red hair danced atop his head like flames. The prey in question kneeled twenty feet away in exhaustion, having narrowly escaped a fiery death. His tribal styled clothes were singed in multiple parts and his hands and feet suffered severe burning. However, other than that he was fine.

"What is going on?! Who are you!" The injured man named Anti yelled out in confusion. The lone red head was silent, taking his time as he continued forward. Anti huffed out in frustration as he looked behind him. His sister laid sprawled out on the ground at least ten yards away unconscious. Neither were expecting the large fireball aimed straight at their faces, even when they did it was too late. She took the brunt of the blow, and seeing her body go flying put a sickening feeling into his stomach. Anti looked to the side and saw the young man he knew ever since he was a child, scrambling to his feet with a look of anger in his eyes.

"What do you want from us?!" Uja yelled, voice full of suspicion. "Whatever it is don't bring this whole place down because of it!" There was silence as the red head continued to walk forward, that is until he stopped. In the middle of the licking flames, the mystery man raised his palm and ignited a ball of flames in his hand. With one look into the others eyes, his smirk turned into a wild smile.

"Do you think I care?" His voice uttered. With the single push of his hand the ball of flames shot forward, locking onto its target. There was a gasp and then a scream of pain. The ball of flames smacked itself against its victim at a high velocity, sending his body flying from the explosion.

"Uja!" Anti called out in horror. He watched as he saw his friend thrown into a nearby burning building. He snapped his head back over to the red head, who was chuckling to himself at the little sob story in front of him. Ignoring the intense pain radiating from the soles of his feet, Anti stood up and narrowed his eyes at the other.

The docks shifted underneath him with a groan and the river water washed violently against it. Anti twitched as he heard the screams of the innocent bystanders who were caught up in the onslaught, still clinging to life in the river water.

"Help!" A scream of terror called out through the groaning of wood and the sharp licks of flames. Anti's attention was torn as he looked down into the river water and saw a man waving frantically at him, between the floating bodies of his small crew. "Please help!" The scared man flinched as a falling piece of wood crashed onto the water, splashing him. The ripples of waves bombarded him as he desperately held onto the capsized fishing boat, which was sinking by the second. Just as Anti was going to jump out and help, a ball of fire whizzed past him, just missing his outstretched arm. Anti stopped and stared back at the smiling red head and growled.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you!" The redhead warned in a sing-song voice. "Don't try to be a hero dude. Besides you'll have to get through me first." The man's smile turned vicious. Seeing that this situation would not go smoothly, the other stepped away and focused his attention back to the red head. Clenching and releasing his hands he got situated into a battle stance.

"At Least tell me your name!" He yelled. The man stopped in his tracks and continued to smile. Like he wanted to humor the man.

"Call me Hayden." He introduced himself bowing slightly. "How about you?" The injured man narrowed his eyes and cracked the cartilage in his neck.

"Anti." He stated. Hayden laughed at the name, tapping the toe of his boot against the wooden ground.

"Anti? What a weird name!" He exclaimed "Too bad you won't be sticking around for us to get to know each other." He tsked ,shrugging his shoulders.

"Such is life."

In a flurry of movement, bright red erupted from Hayden's hands. There was no warning for the first attack, just the feeling of something insanely hot right in front of Anti's face.

"What?!" Anti gasped as he leaned sharply to the side, flames only nicking his cheek. With a quivering eye and a twitching lip, Hayden gave in and rushed at Anti leaving a trail of fire behind him. With speed that was unprecedented, the young man appeared right in front of Anti in the air. With a loud grunt he gave a flaming axe kick right down at his intended target's head. However, It was met with an invisible wall. Hayden's eyebrows raised with surprise as he glanced down at his opponent. He struggled against the invisible force and saw a faint yellow glow surrounding Anti's upper half, like a shield. Then his eyes picked up at Anti's lips, which were muttering a silent incantation. Hayden hitched in anger and kicked off of Anti's arm, with extreme force, using his fire magic as a propeller. Spinning far into the air, Hayden brought his hands together. A magic circle appeared in front of both and with a cry, he sent forth three stream of flames. Anti rolled and then jumped as two more streams of fire were targeted at him. Instead of burning flesh, they were met with the wood of the docks.

"Stay still dammit!" Hayden yelled in annoyance. Landing heavily onto the groaning wood of the docks he watched as Anti sidestepped every stream of fire that was sent after him, gradually getting closer. Spinning around in an incredible show of acrobatics, for a man of his size, Anti then slid forward onto his knees. He bent backward barely missing the streak of fire from boiling his eyes in their sockets. Scrambling back onto his sore feet, he ran straight at the flame head with a fist ready to fly. Anti roared into a barrage of punches and kicks that connected fluidly but still kept their essence of power. With each punch the air whooshed by, with every kick the flames seemed to part obligingly. Hayden was impressed, but he had seen better. He side-stepped and dodged, all with his hands in his pockets.

"Man, you're stronger than I thought!" Hayden complimented as he blocked two blows with his arms. "But not as strong as me!"

In a quick turn of events Hayden gained the upper hand by sending a flaming fist straight into Anti's gut,knocking the air out of him. As Anti tried to recover a, hand grabbed his bushy hair before sending his face to a crash course with Hayden's knee. Anti grunted,feeling his nose crunch under the pressure, before he was thrown back into the air by another blast of fire. The incinerating heat stuck against whatever wood that seemed bare of any fire, making the ground unstable, even with all the craters littered about. Anti landed hard onto his back but he wouldn't let the pain get to him. He jumped up to his feet to see Hayden running straight at him. The red head threw his arms behind him he shot forward, using his fire magic to make it seem that he was flying. With a laugh He twisted his body, enveloping himself into a flaming corkscrew of fire and flew Anti at like a missile. Seeing the oncoming attack Anti crossed his arms and frowned.

"Come at me **!** " He yelled. In seconds transparent yellow magic enveloped his hands. He shot his arms out and caught the flaming man with the help of his natural strength. He grounded his teeth together as he felt the pressure pushing against his hands and causing him to be moved back a single foot.

"Damn you!" He growled, grabbing Hayden by the follicles of his flaming hair. In utter surprise, Hayden felt his body being slammed down into the wooden boards of the docks.

"How'd you like this!" Anti growled. The impact was hard and ignited the wood into flames and causing more destruction than Anti intended. The docks shifted again and this time the groans of the wood gave way, causing half of the structure to plunge into the river below. Hayden's hair slipped from Anti's grasp and they both fell. Right before landing Anti swore he saw Hayden's face contort into a look of horror. It seemed that water wasn't his thing. As he felt the cold liquid hit his body Anti felt sort of rejuvenated, besides all the large pieces of wood hitting his body as he sunk deeper into the water. The water wasn't numbing, but cold nevertheless. While in the mix of air bubbles and debris, Anti exhaled as a hard piece of wood collided with his back, sending his weightless body down a few inches. With no time to take a deep breath of air, he found his lungs tight and burning.

He needed air and fast.

So turning skyward he kicked his feet furiously but with purpose. Flailing his arms in every direction, he pushed and dodged through the debri before breaking the watery surface.

"Bleh!" Anti coughed violently as he breached the water, his body momentarily dipping back under from the sheer energy he released. He looked and saw that a sizable amount of wood was still attached to the rest of the docks, although barely, to the rest of it. Seeking an opportunity, he swam over and latched himself on the wood before using his strength to scale the small bridge to dry flaming land. Crawling back up top he went to stand, only to fall down onto his side when he felt a searing pain on both his feet. It was as if a thousand sharp needles were driven deep into his skin and it hurt like a bitch. He hissed as he turned his feet to an angle where he could properly asses the damage, and it wasn't pretty. Anti has had splinters before, but nothing compared to this. After one look Anti was sure that he wouldn't be walking for a while. Luckily for him help came quickly in the form of young mages.

"Anti!" The man in question looked up in front of him to see Teri, Ablan, and Jacken running up to him. From the looks on their faces, it was easy for him to tell that he looked horrible.

"What happened man?" Jacken asked as he shielded his face from the unbearable smoke.

"No, don't worry about me." Anti panted, ignoring the pain radiating from his feet. "Uja, help Uja!" He pointed to the building that his friend crashed into.

"Some psychopath caught us off guard. My sister was knocked out , Uja was sent flying and I had a short scuffle him that turned into...well this." He gestured to the destruction around them. Anti tried to stand back up but the pain brought him back down, only to be caught Ablan.

"It looks like you won't be able to walk. I would say to sit back down but this place is hardly stable and a major health hazard. We need to get out of here." Ablan stated as he scanned Anti's condition.

"What?! We can't! We have a mission to do!" Anti fired back with a sudden flare of anger.

"Um, I hate to burst your bubble but all the boats around here are trashed. The only way to get to Seven from here is to cross the river, and in your state that's impossible." Jacken stated matter-o-factly, crossing his arms. Teri frowned and elbowed the blonde in the ribs for the harsh attitude.

"What he's trying to say is that we're stuck here for the most part. Now that this little disaster happened the whole country's distaste for mages is just going to spike. It's likely that they're gonna put the blame on us." She clarified after seeing Anti narrow his eyes dangerously. "But seriously guys let's get out of here, this smoke is killing my lungs!" She grimaced.

"Great idea! I'll go fetch sleeping beauty over there." Jacken began, thumbing back at the direction of the motionless woman, who was dangerously close to the billowing flames. " And you go get Uja." He ordered Teri.

"Be more respectful." Anti growled at the retreating blonde, who just waved him off. Looking between the two Titan Nose mages, Anti sighed.

"I don't like him"

"It's understandable." They replied in unison. So with a grunt, Anti limped off with both Teri and Ablan by his side. After making sure he was okay to walk, Teri broke from the trio and ran off into the burning building to find Uja. With each step it felt like fire and Anti really, really wanted to lay down. But he couldn't and shouldn't, until he suddenly got a bad feeling. It was as if someone took incredibly chilled water and dumped it over his head; and he wasn't the only one who realized this either.

"Get Down!" Ablan yelled pushing Anti down with strength that surprised him for a man of his size. The burly man hit the deck hard, chin slamming against wood and tasted something iron and salty from a busted lip. Turning over wildly, he was greeted with the sound of water ripping up into the sky like a geyser. He watched with wide eyes as the steaming liquid rained upon the area,flickering the flames on the nearby buildings. Not wanting himself or Ablan to be boiled alive he stuck his arms out in front of him and and yelled.

" **Barrier**!" A yellow dome of magic enveloped them, saving them from being drenched in hot water.

"Holy shit!" Ablan heard Jacken curse from far away, turning his head he saw the blonde struggle with the limp body of Anti's sister. As if on queue Teri struggled out of the now flame free building, dragging Uja and looking extremely confused.

"What the.." She gasped and jumped back to avoid the hot water. "What the hell?!"

"I don't know!" Jacken yelled. "Let's just get these guys to a safe place!" He nodded too the unconscious bodies in their grips. There was another tremor that shook the ground, sending both to the ground. Water rained all around their unprotected bodies, sending another cloud of steam into the air. The water dissipated after another minute leaving the steam to sit there and sting their skin. Teri was the first to rise, noting that Anti and Ablan were still under the protection of the barrier. She waved her hand in front of her eyes to try and clear the steam when she saw something strange.

"Um guys, who's that?" She asked as she pointed to the area in front of Anti and Ablan. They all looked up and watched as the outline of a person emerged through the steam, marching towards them with purpose. Two arms shot out flailing to disperse the thick steam, revealing the form of a redhead drenched in water from head to toe. He sucked in air sharply before snapping his head to the group's direction, glowering intensely. Anti got to one knee, glaring at the other as the redhead made his way to them.

"Hayden." He growled. The redhead just growled in reply,shaking his head, causing his hair to fly in all directions. Water continued to dribble down Hayden's face, causing him to grimace in disgust.

"I..Hate...Water!" He stomped with each word. "YOU!" He shouted, pointing at Anti. "You are going to pay for this!"

"Well I'm not the one who decided to pick a fight on top of a river dock!." Anti yelled as his magic barrier dispersed. He tried to take a step forward, only to stumble at the pain shooting up from his feet. Ablan noticing his faltering steps and put a hand against Anti's chest. In defiance Anti went to brush it off but Ablan's hand held firm as he shook his head, clearly standing his ground.

"No, you're not well. We'll handle this" He assured, looking over to the red head.

"Stay outta this pretty boy!" Hayden warned. Ablan looked at Hayden, expression blank. The redhead scoffed, stopping where he was, before staring straight into his eyes." You'd rather be counted as collateral damage?! Heh, well fine by me."

With a growl Hayden's Body erupted in flames, burning the wood underneath his feet. He spread his arms out wide, cackling like a maniac before stretching them out in front of him. A magic circle, bigger than before, appeared before their very eyes. Ablan watched as a swirl of fire emerged in front of it, growing larger and larger by the second.

"Anti!"

"I'm on it!" The yell was all that was needed for Anti. Falling back on one knee Anti brought his hands together and conjured a barrier; Just as a stream of flames barreled against it. It pushed against the barrier with great ferocity, flames fanning out in all directions.

"Burn!" Hayden roared, his fire magic distorting his voice into that of a monster. Anti sucked in another breath as the flames grew stronger and noticed Ablan move out of the corner of his eye.

"Hey-what are you doing?!" He yelled over the sound of flames.

"Stop it, now!"

"What?! Why?!" Anti asked, grunting as the flames grew. Couldn't he tell that if he ended the barrier that they would all fry?! Anti was about to retort but caught Ablan's stare. It was an expression that clearly read "Now was not the time for questions". Anti mouth moved but words only came out as air. He then glanced down at Ablan's hands, which were fiddling around with a large pouch that was fastened around Ablan's waist.

"What are you doing?!" Anti asked, sweat melting down his arms. Ablan looked up at the other and smiled.

"I have a plan."

* * *

 **Man this fight scene is the longest one that I've written so far, and it isn't even done! Next time we will finally meet up with Kouki and see how he's been doing. So, until then have a nice day!**

 **Ja ne~**


	12. Chapter 12

**Author's Note: This chapter flew out of my head over the past few weeks. I feel so much better getting this out, but more pressure to complete the next chapter. Up until now, I hadn't realized how of Gary Stu my MC is. I mean damn. I'll-I'll fix that I promise, I'll probably go back and nerf him somehow; but even so, he's going to become powerful later on. Especially during the time skip. With all that said, I definitely have some work to do.**

 **If you feel that anything is wrong with the story, please leave a review. I'll happily listen to your critiques. So, until then enjoy!  
**

 **Ja Ne~**

* * *

Fire continued to spew out of Hayden's flame encrusted hands, the flames now borderline wild. He gritted his teeth as he felt the barrier shift down another foot before roaring for more ground. There was nothing more disgusting than feeling water seep down his form. The way it extinguished his flames made Hayden feel vulnerable, naked even. Hayden's eyes burned with hatred. No one gets water on Hayden Nerozaki, not unless they had a serious death wish.

"Come on outta there!" Hayden yelled. "Fight me fair and square!" Another pulse of magic from his hands sent another layer of flames out, smacking against the yellow barrier. Even with all his power from his weakened form, it still wouldn't break. So Hayden continued to yell. He yelled for the barrier to collapse and char its inhabitants; yelled for the sweet smell of burning flesh to mix in with the rising smoke.

It wasn't long before Hayden got his wish.

It was as if a dam broke, fire barreled down the wooden ground at the sudden absence of the barrier. The flames consumed everything in it's path and ignited the previous untouched structures into a fierce blaze. As the fire evenly dispersed Hayden eagerly waited to see his handy work. Unfortunately,the situation wasn't leaning toward his side. The eager smile on his face lowered into a tense line. They weren't there. Hayden whipped around in haste in hopes of finding their whereabouts. They weren't fucking there! He clenched his hands into fists, fire igniting violently in his palms. They weren't going to get away, that was for sure.

"Where are you hiding?" He muttered to himself as he ventured forward cautiously. His ears perked as he tried to listen for any noise that stood out from the flickering flames. There was a sudden blur, a black figure bursting out of the inferno, with no company in sight. Hayden's attention shot upward after catching the jingling sound of magic. Daggers ,shaped from purple energy, sliced through the air and headed toward his prone form. Hayden acted on instinct and swiped his arm upward, a move that created an arc of flames. The daggers came to a brutal stop, shattering on contact against the flames and disappearing into a purple mist. There was another streak of purple causing Hayden to flip backward, just as another set of daggers embedded themselves onto the wooden ground. He caught himself kneeling and looked up with a heated frown.

"If you think your fancy knives are gonna beat me, then you're dead wrong!" Hayden shouted at the auburn male who stood atop of a charred building. Ablan stood elegantly at the edge of a burnt roof, looking down at a kneeling Hayden. "Do you want to test your theory?" Ablan questioned, lifting both arms slowly as a malicious glow emitted from the rings on his fingers. Hayden stared dead at the other as he got to his feet. The frown that sat unpleasantly on his face almost seemed to darken with fury.

"Try me."

Ablan complied and clasped both hands together. With a grunt he pushed out his hands, sending a hail storm of daggers at their intended target. They were fast, nearly as fast as a bullet,but not enough for Hayden to be impaled. He went to work, feet expertly maneuvering around the floor, dodging and deflecting the daggers with his fire. With each hit, the daggers exploded into a mist of purple. Hayden, bringing his attention back to Ablan, threw a ball of fire at the unsuspecting man. Ablan's eyes widened at the flaming ball of destruction, diving out of the way and falling down onto the ground below.

"Just where I want you." Hayden murmured. Hayden's boots pushed off the ground, sending the man flying at Ablan with his fire propelling him faster.

"No more stalling!" Hayden yelled, anger getting the better of him. His flaming fist shot forward to meet Ablan's face, only to greet the deflecting slap of Ablan's hand.

What?!

Hayden went at it again, this time adding more speed into his movements. Flaming punches were combined with intricate spins and acrobatics. Each either clipping their mark, or batted away by a deflecting push. Hayden bit his lip in frustration. The brat was using his strength against him!

This was not going to stand.

"Enough!" Hayden shouted, kicking out his leg in hopes of disabling his opponent. His foot met its mark right on Ablan's knee, pushing it in an awkward angle. Ablan screamed, stumbling backward before falling unceremoniously to the ground.

"You're mine!" Hayden yelled. Ablan coughed as a heavy weight slammed against his chest. He looked up and saw Hayden straddling him, legs locked onto his side to prevent him from moving. Flaming fists came down on him and Ablan desperately ducked and blocked the best he could. Hayden's fists burned Ablan's unprotected arms,giving him nasty burns. With each hit Ablan pushed at the other, in hopes of getting the uncomfortable weight off of him before he suffocated.

"Get off!" Ablan roared. The rings on his fingers flashed a deep red, unlike the purple before. Red daggers appeared around the flaming redhead, who stopped his assault, looking at them with confusion. Time seemed to slow as the daggers flashed white before exploding. Hayden rocketed off of Ablan, screaming in surprise. His body hit the ground a few yards away, rolling to a stop. Ablan watched Hayden's un-moving body with apprehension as he moved his legs experimentally, checking for injuries. Despite the ache of his right knee, he presumed that he was fine; just sore.

"Ablan!" A voice rang through his head like a megaphone. Ablan winced clutching both hands to his head in pain.

"Teri! Volume please!" He grunted. Ablan could hear Teri mutter an apology through the telepathic link.

"Is this better?" She asked, voice much lower this time. Ablan took a sigh of relief and slowly rose to his feet. He took a look around, assessing the damage.

"Yes, much better." He replied.

"What happened?" Teri questioned, getting straight to business. "Your presence was wavering for a bit!"

"It's alright. I was just having a hard time for a bit, but it looks like I knocked him out." Ablan hobbled over to the redhead, who was still lying in the ground. Ablan gave him a slight push to the side, his body flipping over, and concluded his assumptions. "It looks like he won't be waking for a while. Could one of you two get over here and help me tie him up?" Ablan asked through the link. Teri hitched, voice balancing through uncertainty and dread.

"We would love to help you but..." Teri looked around her. The clanking of boots echoed through the decimated area, which was severely burned by the fire in the docks that managed to spread. In the midst of the chaos of screams and terror, soldiers decked out in Bosconian armor surrounded the small mage group in a flash. If it wasn't for their metal masks, she was certain that they were staring holes into their bodies.

"We're in a bit of trouble." She explained. Teri and Jacken backed up, helping the forms of their newly awakened comrades. Uja's head snapped up and growled at the soldiers, while Anti and his sister huddled closely together.

"That's a HUGE underestimate." Jacken scoffed. The Titan Nose duo looked back at the group of soldiers.

"Attention!"

"Sir, yes, sir!" The soldiers responded at the voice of a commanding figure. In one fluid motion two soldiers in the front stepped aside. The group watched apprehensively as an older man walked forward. He was a lanky, tan man with a presence that screamed obedience. His unmasked face was graced with a nasty scar that cut diagonally, giving him a rugged look. His armour was stylized differently from the other foot soldiers and seemed to be newly shined. Teri squinted at the glare that bounced off of the metal plating. This man sure meant business. He took two more steps before he was standing about a foot away from the girl, looming over her.

"You four have some explaining to do." He stated firmly. Teri and Jacken looked at each other and sighed.

This was gonna be a long day.

* * *

I heard the explosions from the emergency room. They were muffled at first, mere rumbles, something that I thought I'd made up. Apparently I was wrong. The desk manager that was situated in the center of the waiting room looked up from her papers. I watched as she gave a questioning glance at one of the windows. The primitive phone next to her rang to life, startling her, and she answered promptly. That's when everything got out of hand.

"Wait? What?!" She yelled, her calm demeanor completely shattered. I sat up straight as I watched her jump up and race through the double doors, shouting something down the hallway. Utter silence graced the waiting room for a few seconds. I looked around in utter confusion, as did the other occupants.

Then it happened.

Medical personnel flooded the room, with looks of serious nature. Some ran outside to get in whatever emergency vehicle they had, while others began working with the injured already there; Like me. A male nurse came up to me, taking one look at my bloody hand, before escorting me rather violently into a small medical room.

"What's going on?" I asked, glancing at the door which was slightly cracked. The man ignored my question, too busy getting out gauze, antiseptic, and a stitching kit to care.

"Hey! Are you even listening?!" I yelled. Seriously, nurses back in Konoha were calmer than this. He snapped out of whatever stupor he was in and sighed to collect his thoughts.

"Sorry, sorry-I was just thinking." He apologized. My ears twitched, picking up the wild commotion outside the room. There were orders being thrown wildly, the sounds of wheels screeching on tiled floor, and the overwhelming sensation of danger. I looked to the nurse, who was cleaning and prepping my hand for stitching, with genuine concern.

"Mister, what's going on?" I asked. I guess my cute face was too much for him to bear as he flinched, but covered it up a millisecond later.

"What's your name kid?" He asked.

"Kouki. Mister what's going on?" I asked again, forcefully this time.

"An explosion, by the docks." He began. "Ready? This will hurt." He stated, readying the needle and thread. Looking at my mutilated fingers and back at the nurse, I nodded.

"Go ahead." I said. I had been used to getting hurt, since being a ninja in Naruto Land was bound for injuries. However, stitches was something I could never get over. Maybe it was the heavy distaste for needles that got me, I don't know. All that I knew was that stitches hurt like a bitch.

"Ouch!" I yelped, suching in air as the needle slid into the pulsing wound. He noticed the pain I was in and was sure to quicken the process as comforting he could. Once he finished the stitching he went and bandaged my fingers, giving me some painkillers for good measure. I ate them greedily, taking a huge gulp of water out of the paper cup that was given to me. The painkillers did their work, although slowly, and I felt the pain the blossomed on my fingers start to dull.

"Now, we can't have you running out there while it's dangerous. I want you to stay here in this room while I go find a place you could go where its safe." He ordered, shaking a finger at me. I glowered at the nurse. Was he seriously treating me like I'm five?! But instead of yelling at him and saying "No", I nodded and watched as he exited the room. I sat their for a few seconds waiting for the nurse to be in a reasonable distance.

Then I made my move.

Hopping off the bed I snuck to the door and opened it slowly. The moaning and groaning of the injured echoed through the halls, only made worse by the hurrying doctors who pushed bloody patients on gurneys. Some I assumed were headed toward the operation room, while others weren't so lucky. I shook my head in sadness before making my way to the emergency room entrance. Going through the double doors I stared in surprise. The once quiet room was now filled with patients, more coming in by the second. Most were adult men, who were bleeding, burnt and broken. Fishermen by the looks of it. Others were regular townspeople, either pleading with the struggling medical personnel to heal their loved ones or staring aimlessly at the walls. How long was I in that room for? It only felt ten whole minuets! I looked at the clock on the wall:

12:20

Wow, guess it was longer than I thought.

"Move kid!" a doctor yelled. I obliged, jumping out of the way as a patient was rolled through on a gurney. My heart went out to them, truly it did, but I needed to get out of there.

"Help! Please my baby!"

I froze, looking at the entrance. A young woman had burst through the crowd holding a toddler in her arms that was, bruised, bloody but still breathing. I watched as the nurses escorted her to a sectioned off area, full of the critically injured. They sat her down and left her! Leaving for another patient who was screaming and bleeding rapidly. The mother screamed in frustration and anger, calling for anyone to help her. I could feel karma prodding my shoulder, beckoning me to go over there and help her.

I obliged obviously, I wasn't heartless.

Besides, that opportunity would probably get me up to speed with whatever was happening. The mother was looking down at her child, forlornly, when I approached her.

"I can help you mam!" I said, trying to sound as kind as possible. The lady looked up at me, first with hope, then with dread. I guess it was to be expected, what kind of person would accept help from a baby faced fifteen year-old anyway? Well I was her best bet and like it or not, she was gonna have to deal with it.

"No." She began, shaking her head. "No,no,no! I won't have some child tend to my Michale!" She looked down at her toddler, who was growing lifeless by the second. I kneeled down in front of her, and looked at her straight in the eye as I shuffled through my backpack.

"Look lady, I know I may be a teenager but I'm all that you have right now!" I reprimanded, pointing at her toddler. The woman flinched, and I closed my eyes in shame. I couldn't yell at a distraught mother like that. No wonder not alot of people liked me as a medic. I took two breaths to calm myself and gave her a sympathetic look."Now, set him down and let me get to work." The lady looked me over once, then twice. Pale blue eyes stared into sheer black ones, and I was getting fed up.

"Please." I added, in hopes she would get it through her thick skull. It took one second before she finally set her child down on the makeshift cot.

"Alright." She said. I smiled warmly before setting my attention to the toddler. He was worse than when I first saw him, and I knew he wouldn't have much time left. So flashing through two hand signs, I ignored the pain in my fingers and channeled my chakra to my palms. It did it's work, slowly but effectively and got rid of the most sever injuries; much to the lady's surprise. She watched in wonder as the child's wounds and burns faded away, albeit slightly. There was still enough damage that required proper bandaging and sterilization. Being that I was only a practitioner in proper wound care, I did my best with what l had. The process ate up fifteen minuets but it was worth it in the end. My heart tensed as the baby's eyes opened, showing a piercing cyan. I was mesmerized by them, never had I seen eyes that blue before.

"By the gods, your a mage!" The lady yelped, clasping both hands to her mouth. I looked at her, frozen on the spot.

"I guess you could say that, yes." I responded. Shouldn't this woman be relieved that her kid is alright? The woman picked up her now bandaged toddler and cuddled him.

"It's just that I've never seen a mage in person, only by word of mouth." She explained. My mouth formed an O shape. I really shouldn't be suprised, after all only a small percent of people have magical abilities in the world.

"So if you don't mind me asking, what in the world happened?" I asked. She looked me with suprise, as if expecting for me to know what already had occurred.

"You don't know?" She began."There was an explosion, by the docks!" she gestured over to the windows. "The eastern side. I was down the hill, at the fish market when it happened. Some crazy guy with red hair started throwing fire balls everywhere. One missed a building and came down right on us. It was so hot, and Michael here fell out of my arms when I fell. By the time I found him he was...well." Tears prickled on the corner of her eyes as she looked down at her child, who was giggling wildly at her face."I-I'm just glad he's okay." She smiled. Michael giggled again in her arms."

"And thank you, I didn't know what I would've done if you didn't show up."

"Your welcome miss." I replied as I rose two my feet. Michael's giggled got my attention for another second. Cyan eyes locked into mine, sending a strange chill down my spine. My mouth quieted as I playfully waved goodbye. Turning away I marched off in a hurry before sighing with uncertainty. Something told me that that wouldn't be the last time I would see him.

"Out of the way!" A voice, loud and baritone, flew through the door. I watched in confusion as a number of soldiers ushered three people inside. My eyes traced over the injured before realization dawned on me.

I know those guys! What was Anti and his sister doing here? and was that Uja?!

"Shit!" The curse escaped my mouth before I could cover it up. This explosion wasn't some sort of accident; whatever had happened had something to do with my group.

I needed to get to them, and fast.

* * *

Bosco as a country, was not known for it's fair treatment for its prisoners. Whether it be petty theft or murder, all criminals were treated with equal brutality. It came as no surprise to anyone, that all criminals were afraid of the Bosconian military; especially their soldiers. Despite this however, criminal activity in the small country was unfortunately rampant. Some speculate that major crime groups have their hands in the government or that while the military is a force to recon with, it was too slow to do anything. No one knew the truth, but Teri still suspected that something fishy was going on.

After they were surrounded by the soldiers, they were immediately arrested and marched to the nearest holding place; which was right under the town security station. The walk was silent but filled with uncertainty. What were they going to do to us?! We didn't even do anything wrong! All these questions cycled through her head as they lead the group into the intimidating building. The look of it was as medieval as it got, especially as descended into the lower levels. Teri had read a small historical book on this place, and found that it was one of the oldest buildings in this whole town. No wonder, she could feel the echoes of the past inhabitants of the cells as she trudged by. She slowed down as she looked into one empty cell, the light of hanging lamp the only thing letting her see. A hand roughly gripped her shoulder and pushed.

"Get your hands off of me! Why are we even in here, we didn't do anything!" Teri snapped, voice echoing off the silver halls. Teri, Jacken and Ablan, walked promptly down the walk space; feet clacking on the dirty stone. The rough hand of a guard shoved Teri's shoulder again, snapping her attention back to the hallway, and ignoring her glare.

"You're lucky you weren't locked up with the psychopath back there." He said, stony face not even sparing her a glance. She growled before looking a little ways behind. In a small cell at least five cells down, held the redheaded mage that created all of the destruction. He was there when they got there, and as of what Teri saw, nursed some pretty bad bruises. Most she suspected from the fight while others...she suspected to be from the soldiers themselves. Probably while he was unconscious too.

"Damn" Teri thought in silence. "You would think that someone with a personality like that would be making more of a fight, but he hasn't done anything. He's just sitting there watching, waiting." Teri frowned. Something was off and she didn't like it. The same guard's hand shoved her shoulder again.

"Could you at least take these off?!" She yelled as she picked up her hands, which were cuffed together. "I'll happily make you a knuckle sandwich!"

"Would you be quiet!" Jacken growled, bumping Teri with his elbow. "We're already neck deep into this mess, I don't want it to get worse!"

"Fine!" Teri huffed. "The shorter I'm around this guy the better."

"You better keep it that way, stop here." The guard walked around the three mages, carefully with hand on hilt. Once he was certain that they wouldn't attack him, he undid the rusty lock with a set of keys.

"Alright, get inside. The general will want to speak to you three in twenty minutes, be ready." He said, watching as each mage trudged inside of the medium sized cell. Once everyone was in, he slid the door shut

"If I were you, I wouldn't do anything stupid." The guard advised. Jacken chuckled, turning around to glare at the other.

"Thanks for the warning, buddy." He growled.

"Whatever." The guard chided before walking away. His heavy boots clanked against the floor, echoing through the airy halls. The group waited, wated and watched until they could no loner hear the guards footsteps. Then when it was quiet, they broke the silence.

"God damn, glad he's gone." Teri sighed, sliding down the cold stone wall to cradle her knees. Jacken paced back and forth in the middle of the room. An awkward silence descended onto the group for another set of minutes, no one knew what to say.

"What do we do now?" Jacken asked.

"Now" Ablan began, sitting down calmly on the cold floor. "We wait."

"Wait?! Are you kidding me!" Jacken retorted. "Ablan we have a mission! We can't just sit around and do nothing!"

"Jacken, we're in a bad spot right now! We can't just go and break out of jail, they'll certainly flag us for sure! We'll be wanted men!"

"Heh, since when did you ever care for the law?" Jacken countered. It was a simple response that to anyone else, wouldn't carry any meaning to. However for Ablan, that sentence carried too much. Ablan's hands dug into his pant legs.

"That's not!-" Ablan started, eyes darkened and voice hardened.

"Enough!"

Teri shot up, stopping whatever argument that would ensue. Both boys looked at her, then each other before looking at the floor in shame. She looked at them both in silence, waiting for the metaphorical steam to ware off.

"No fighting, especially not right now." She said, glancing at both of them."Jacken, I think what Ablan's saying is true. If we're going to get out of here we need to follow what the soldiers here say. It's the best for all of us."

"Well Anti and Uja would probably say otherwise."

"What?" Teri asked. Jacken looked at Teri as if she were seriously retarded.

"They're all probably at some hospital by now Teri! I know for sure that they wouldn't sit still for long. They'll probably break out, and that wouldn't be good; would it Ablan?" Jacken finished, looking back at his teammate. Ablan's lips pressed together in a fine line. He sat there silent for what seemed like ages.

"Teri, how far can your telepathic powers go?" Ablan asked.


	13. Chapter 13

**Author's Note: Wow! More and more people are gaining interest with my story! Thank you all for your wonderful reviews!  
**

 **I think this is the longest chapter I've written so far in any story of mine, I gotta celebrate! Also the word count-Phewy! This story's getting longer and longer, and the funny thing is that this is only the beginning!**

 **I'm so excited to see where we end up, but without further delay,**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

"..."

"..."

"Anything?"  
The grimy cell beneath the police headquarters was barely illuminated by the lanterns hanging on the outside walls. Jacken, who stopped mid pace, stared at Teri with an expression that expected an answer. However, he wouldn't be getting an answer he would like.

"Well?" Jacken asked again, tapping his foot against the stone ground, impatiently. Teri frowned as beads of sweat trickled down her face.

"Could you knock it off?! You're only making this more difficult for me!" She snapped, eyes opening to stare at the blonde male. Before Jacken could respond Ablan voiced his opinion and told for him to lay off. Frustrated, Jacken looked at the other man in silence before sighing in defeat.

"Whatever." He grumbled, sitting down. With the disturbance gone, Teri closed her eyes once more and concentrated. She followed the trail; tracking Anti's mind, as he was the strongest out of the others. His trail seemed to zigzag, dipping under and over until it rested at a third story hospital room. Teri made her move and went to enter, only for her to be dispelled. The block shocked her, unraveling her concentration, and snapping her back to reality. She gasped, jolting upward from her seated position. Her gasp startled the other two, causing them to bring their attention to her. Jacken noticed that something was wrong, if the stunned expression from Teri's eyes could say anything.

"What happened?" He asked. Teri didn't answer, she just stared ahead at the opposite wall.

"Hey! Earthland to Teri!" Jacken yelled, trying to get the girl's attention. Teri sat there with her mouth open, licking her lips as she tried to find the words to begin. After a few silent moments, she spoke breathlessly.

"I-I couldn't reach him."

"What?! How's that even possible?!" Jacken yelled, shooting up with confusion.

"Jacken!" Ablan began. "Calm down! Teri could you explain?" Ablan asked, waving Jacken to sit back down. Teri shook her head as she still tried to make sense of the new situation.

"They put up some kind of barrier, a strong one at that! It's keeping me from entering!" Teri explained as she wiped her forehead with her cuffed hand.

"This is very concerning." Ablan stated, rubbing his chin. Even in the dark Teri could see his dark eyes close, twitching, as he scoured his mind for some hidden answer. Ablan's eyes shot open not even five seconds later.

"Teri," He began. "See if you can pick up on Kouki's mental signature!" Teri's breath hitched. Of course! She knew she was forgetting someone!

"Hopefully he isn't caught up in anything." Jacken grumbled, voicing his concerns.

"Oh shut it." Teri snapped as she closed her eyes for a second time, biting her lip for extra concentration. Her mind fazed out, zipping through the black and white townscape. She went through the crowds of people on hopes of finding the young and youthful mind she vaguely knew. As her mind fazed through another group of people, she felt a ping. It was slight, almost miniscule. Almost. Her physical body sat up straighter, alert, as her mind focused on the brand new lead. It was coming from the hospital, the same hospital Anti and the others are in! Her mind sped through the black and white streets in glint, getting closer to the ping, that was growing stronger by the foot. Her mind flew past the slow images of citizens in distress, phased through the large double doors, and towards the glowing beacon that was kneeling on the left side of the emergency room.

"Crap!"

The exclamation broke her concentration entirely, snapping her mind back into her body. Teri gasped, eyes snapping open at the sudden loss and back arching at the unwanted re-connection to her body. She shook her head, coughed, before glaring at Jacken, who was staring with a mix of apprehensiveness and glee at the cell bars.

"What the-?!" Teri began only to be shushed by the same blonde who disturbed her mental connection. The metal door to the entrance creaked open, followed by a number of clanking footsteps.

Soldiers.

"This might be our ticket out of here." Jacken grinned.

"Shh! Be quiet!" Teri hushed. Ten fully armed soldiers walked up to their cell, faces covered In their standard helmets. The biggest one unlocked the door with a skeleton key, before opening it, metal screeching against the floor..

"You two," He gestured to Ablan and Teri. "Get up." Jacken watched as his teammates rose in surprise. He wasn't going with them. Why wasn't he going with them?! The question bounced inside his skull, fueling the newfound anger bubbling up inside of him.

"Wait what?! What about me!" Jacken protested, jumping to his feet. Ablan turned sharply at the outspoken protest, sensing the anger from his teammate and friend. His eyes widened as a faint glow of gold start to swirl around the blonde, like a huge gust of wind. Jacken's teeth ground together and his eyes seemed to stab at the soldiers with malice. This definitely wasn't good.

"Jacken no!-" Ablan yelled, warning the blonde not to do anything reckless. However his pleas fell on deaf ears, not because Jacken was ready to beat the tar out of these guards, but because Jacken was on the floor convulsing and gurgling in pain. Ablan's breath hitched, shocked at how the situation ended. His gaze went from his convulsing teammate, to a guard now standing inside the cell.

"The hell?!" Ablan yelped as he and Teri backed up against the wall. How the hell did he get in here so fast?! Not even a second passed between Jacken being angry and convulsing on the floor. Ablan narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

What was going on?

Ablan looked down into the soldier's hand and saw a strange long metal baton with electricity dancing around the shaft. Ablan's eyes widened at the center of the weapon, seeing a small piece of lacrima engraved there.

"Weaponized Lacrima?!" Ablan thought in surprise. "These soldiers must be trained to fight mages head on!"

"What the hell?!" Teri yelled, snapping her attention to the armed soldier. The soldier didn't pay her no mind. Instead, he stepped back, staring at Jacken with caution. With no words the other soldiers rushed in grabbing both Ablan and Teri roughly before dragging them out. It was then when Jacken gained back control of most of his body, though he was still limp from the sudden convulsions.

"Y-you sons of b-bitches!" Jacken gurgled, watching his friends being taken by the soldiers. "I'll k-kill you for this!"  
The threat had no impact, especially when it came from a writhing mess on the floor. The large soldier dismissed it, and walked away in silence. With a hard shove, Anti and Teri begrudgingly followed, taking one last look at their blonde friend before leaving. The cellar door closed, echoing throughout the chamber. Jacken crawled up to the bars, huffing and puffing from exhaustion.

"I need to get outta here."

* * *

The smell of antiseptic overwhelmed the halls of the hospital, barely masking the odor of blood and sweat that seeped from the emergency lobby. Right after I saw the bodies of my friends being escorted into the hospital, a nurse dragged me over to another group of patients, not giving me any time to change my mind. So deciding not to argue, I went to work with patient after patient, not stopping to rest. I pushed my chakra reserves into overdrive, trying to heal as many injuries as best as I could. I pushed on, ignoring the warnings and cries that my chakra system gave me. But, as the minutes went on, my body began to hurt and my vision blurred. I caught myself with my right hand, preventing me from toppling over. Shaking my head, I groaned, as I tried to get rid of the dark spots in my sight. It also didn't help that I felt this..strange sensation. As if someone was trying a very poor attempt at getting my attention. Not with a physical yell or touch, but mental wise. It was as if someone or something was reaching out and trying to poke me, but only grazing the back of my subconscious with their light fingers. I shook my head a second no- a third time, doing the best I could to get myself together. Finally, after a whole three minutes I managed to get on my feet, even though they felt like mush.

"Chakra Exhaustion." I told myself. "That must be it." This definitely wasn't good, I was starting to feel fire course through my veins, and it hurt like a bitch. I was certain that a few patients and medical personnel were sparing me worried glances as I hobbled away. However I ignored them, including the weak response of thanks from my patient. I needed to get to Anti and the others. That was my main priority. Each step I took felt like a million tons and I could see with each slump of my head, that blacking out was a likely possibility.

Man I hated my life.

A hand rested on my shoulder, startling me. My head slowly turned towards the disturbance.

"You don't look so good kid." A voice of a female nurse stated with genuine concern in her facial features. I directed my full attention towards her and mumbled that I was fine, though I did stumble on my feet. Her eyes narrowed and lips pursed, I then knew that I wouldn't be getting out of this one.

"You're in no condition to walk around young man, come with me."

"I-I don't think-I'm fine!" I dismissed her, shaking my shoulder from her grip.

"I think you should-"

"I said-!" The words spilled out of my mouth, like marbles. I felt world around me turned upside down, and the ground seemed a lot closer than it used to be. I didn't feel the pain of my body colliding with the floor. However, I did feel how it chilled my bones. The ground was cold to the touch, yet it felt so... so right. A smile crept on my face as I felt my body being lifted up. For some strange reason, I chuckled before I saw darkness.

* * *

The building was quiet, too quiet for all the chaos outside it's walls. Ablan and Teri shared a look of concern as they ascended from the basement and to the main floor. The security station lobby was what you would have expected from a government building: bland, boring, for a medieval styled building. The local policing force was mixed in with soldiers, all frantically looking through papers, or rushing out of the doors in squadrons. Teri swaggered at her own pace, nearing the back of the group. Her eyes drunk in every nook and cranny of the building, storing every detail in the recesses of her mind. That is, until a soldier pushed her out of her daze.

"Keep moving! We don't want to keep them waiting." A beefy soldier stressed. Teri's head spun around, eyes glaring daggers into the other's helmet.

"I thought I told you to quit it! Damn, are all you soldiers like this?" She mumbled to herself, shrugging her shoulders before marching off with a huff. The soldier chuckled as he followed close behind her. Ablan looked back at the annoyed female mage and shook his head, clearly not approving of her attitude. Teri, seeing Ablan's distaste, growled annoyance and let the soldiers guide her and Ablan through the lobby and up main staircase. As they ascended further they reached a long hallway, with numerous offices on each side. Policemen stopped from their business and stared at the group, with glares that could kill on sight. Ablan fixed his gaze forward, not giving the policemen any mind, while Teri glared right back.

"Knock it off girl," The soldier behind Teri warned. "There are other things you should be focusing on." The group walked further down the hall, approaching a singular room at the end.

"Let's get this over with."

The lead soldier unlocked the silver door, opening it, and letting the mages be escorted inside. The rooms walls were a dark, almost blue grey, it's floor a more dull tint. The chairs that Ablan and Teri sat on were uncomfortable at best, stiff planks where a cushion should be. Once Ablan had scanned the white rectangular table in front of him, it all clicked. This was an interrogation room.

"Great, just great." Ablan muttered to himself. The soldiers filed out one by one, each giving a last look at the two mages before closing the door, leaving both mages alone with a single guard who erect like a suit of armor. Ablan looked over to Teri, whose eyes were closed in concentration.

"Ter-"

"Damn it!" The girl interrupted him, grinding her teeth together while slamming her bound fists on the table before them.

"What's wrong?" Ablan asked.  
"It's Kouki, he's unconscious." She answered as she rubbed her face into her hands. Ablan frowned, another problem had graced their hands. With Kouki incapacitated, their options of escape was dwindling. The more civil ones, rather.

"Unless...

"Teri," He began, idea forming inside his mind. "Is it possible for you to speak into his subconscious?"

The girl looked up at Ablan from her hands, face contorted into disgust.

"You mean invading someone's dream-scape? Ablan, not only is that incredibly invasive into someone's privacy, it's dangerous! Plain and simple! I can't just go and hop into someone's mind like that! It takes more energy and is incredibly more difficult than establishing a telepathic link!" Teri explained, horrified where Ablan would get such an idea from.

"You've done it before."

"I know that!" She snapped. "But that's when I was younger, I didn't know...It was awful." Her hands intertwined with each other, fiddling and picking at the skin on each finger tip. She was clearly distressed, but there was no other way.

"Teri."

"No."

"Teri pleas-"

"No."

" **Teri.** " Ablan's voice deepened, demanding for the other to listen. Teri responded, head snapping over to look at Ablan with a pensive expression. The two stared at each other until she finally gave in.

"Alright fine." Teri sighed. "But don't say I didn't warn you." She closed her eyes and concentrated, feeling her mind depart from her physical body and drift off into the black and white realm. She felt for the pulse that she felt back in the cell, and followed the trail until she reached the hospital. Phasing through the doors she continued on, passed the slowed images of patients and doctors to a room up in the first floor. She floated through the door and found Kouki, lying down on sterile bed and looking out of it. She drifted closer, feeling the strong presence that was Kouki's mind. It was like a vacuum, drawing her in no matter how hard she resisted. Teri didn't fight the sudden urge to flee, the sudden urge to runaway. She knew she had to do this. So, she did. She relaxed, placing her hands on his temples before in a flash of light, she was gone.

Teri felt an indescribable chill run through her mental image as she melted through the barriers of Kouki's mind. It was as if she dived straight into a cesspool of black goop that dragged her downward with a vice grip. The harder she struggled, the more the grip tightened. So, she decided against fighting back and let the subconscious goop absorb her, only to spit her out onto the other side.

"Strange.." Teri mused. Though she hasn't delved into many minds in her life, Teri could notably say that this mind-scape was one of the most concerning out of any she had ever seen. Usually a person's mind-scape would take form into things like a long door-filled hallway, a giant library, or a nature scene. Kouki's however was vastly different. It was a solid grey hallway, with no doors, that seemed to spiral down the further you walked. It sported empty holes where walls used to be, revealing a nightmarish red sky, purple clouds, and a moon that bleed black goop. Teri grimaced as she floated down the hallway, glancing at every spot of goop that laid splattered on corner after corner. As she floated further down, she noticed an exit at the very end. She quickened her pace, floating down faster, hair whipping behind her. Speeding through the broken exit, Teri found herself onto a floating island with soil an unnerving porcelain.

"What the..." The words that escaped her mouth only covered a small portion of emotions she had swimming through her mind. "This shit's fucking-I don't even know." She sighed, shaking her head. There was no time to judge, she had more pressing matters to attend to. Teri floated forward, crossing through eerie white plains towards a giant green tree that seemed to have planted itself in the middle of the land mass. Teri stopped and gazed around before there, right at the base was a figure. She hesitated at first, but then clenched her hands and pressed her lips into a line.

She could do this.

She moved forward, feet gliding above the ground, until she could make a decent image of the person sitting before her. He was sitting cross legged, pale skin almost camouflaging with the ground. The clothes he wore were very loose fitting, crinkling around his knees and arms with ease and looked quite foreign. With his black wild and unkempt hair and bushy eyebrows, Teri quickly figured that it was Kouki. She stopped five feet away from him.

"Kouki?" Her voice held into the air, rippling throughout the nightmarish space. The young teen sat there with his eyes closed, as if he was contemplating the meaning of his existence.

"Kouki!" Teri yelled. She had no time for games, time was of an essence. The boy responded that time. Eyes snapping open, large intake of breath, and intense glare.

"What are you doing here?" The question was hissed out, dangerous and laced with suspicion. Teri floated back abruptly, blinking at the other in surprise. She didn't expect Kouki to respond in such a hostile manner. However it shouldn't come as a surprise, she should know this. After all, people could be very hostile when their mind had uninvited visitors.

"Kouki, It's me Teri! You know, a member of our group." She explained hurriedly. Something sparked within his eyes, and like changing a channel, the hostel vibe Teri got from him was gone.

"Teri? How did you even get in here?!" He asked incredulously.

"I can't explain right now, besides we're in deep trouble."

"I bet you are, if invading my mind says anything." Kouki chided. Teri narrowed her eyes and puffed her cheeks. Kouki laughed.

"Do whatever it take to get Anti and the others from the hospital. If that means making a big scene then do it. Ablan, Jacken and I are captured and we need as much help as we can get. "

"A rescue mission within a rescue mission, interesting." Kouki pondered. "Well I don't know what to tell you, I'll most likely be stuck here for a while, but I'll do what I can."

"Good, we-" Teri stopped mid-sentence, lurching forward. She gasped, looking down at her hands, to see them phase in and out of Kouki's consciousness.

"Uh oh."

Uh oh was right. Someone was messing with Teri's connection. She hitched again as the feeling of a thousand knives tearing her flesh radiated through her mind. Kouki realized the danger.

"You need to leave, now!" He yelled. Teri clutched her head in pain as her image turned to static, flickering on and off.

"We're at the security station!" She screeched. "Second floor, look for us there!"

And then she was gone.

* * *

Teri's body arched violently in her seat, as her mind was forced back in. Her eyes fluttered, mouth agape as she tried to get as much air in. She then heaved forward and spiraled into a violent coughing spree, gasping for breath.

"Teri!" She heard Ablan's worried call as she got herself together, before opening her eyes fully to asses the situation.

"Ah, sleeping beauty awakes!" A tenor voice full of youth spoke up, right in front of her. Teri looked up. A man in his late thirties was gazing down at her with a smug look. With his iron pressed white dress shirt,black tie, and black pants he seemed dressed for success. Teri would suspect that he worked stuck in a room for fifteen hours, not interrogating magi. She looked at his bony fist, blood trickle down his knuckles. Her eyes widened as she felt a large welt start to form on her forehead. Did this guy punch her so hard that her absent mind flew back into her body?!

 _Damn._ She cursed in her head. _How strong was this guy?_

"Who do you think you are?!" She growled, jumping to her feet. The man's hands found their way to her shoulders, shoving her hard back into the chair.

"Sit down." He ordered, giving her the stink eye. Teri growled and watched him waltz over to the other side of the table, light shadowing half of his face. "We can't have any telepath leaking information now can we?" Teri reeled forward again, cupping her head in her hands as she felt a terrible headache come over her. "What is this?" She groaned. The stranger laughed holding up his bloody hand, revealing a silver band on his ring finger.

"I disabled your powers for a short while." He elaborated, watching as a look of horror mixed in with Teri's pained features. "Your focus is with me now anyway." The man leaned against the table, propping himself up with his hands.

"I believe you two know why you're here?"

"I'm afraid you're interrogating the wrong people sir." Ablan stated in monotone.

"Oh really?"

"The one you want is the red head stuck up in that stupid cell!" Teri yelled, anger overriding her emotions. The stranger straightened up, fiddling with his tie.

"Well that's for me to look into and for me to find out. But right now, everyone's a suspect." He frowned. "The citizens are worried, scared, they want answers."

"So you're gonna put the blame on us?!" Teri shouted in anger. The man looked at her for a second.

"No." He stated. "There's no need to, not when the public is doing it already." Ablan and Teri shared look of concern.

"I mean when disaster strikes, Bosconians always put the blame to mages. We only fueled the fire when we rounded up your group. So," He took a breath and crossed his arms. "I want to bring a new light to this messed up situation, and clear up whatever madness might happen. All I need from you two is to cooperate and give me your side of the story. Deal?"

"...Deal."

* * *

Hayden wasn't happy-oh no, he was very, very, angry. The red head sat cross-legged in the middle of his cell, staring holes into the empty cell across from him. The bruises on his body ached, screaming out whenever he tried to move. Hayden found a newfound hatred to the soldiers in the Bosconian Military. Before, he only thought of them as big metal dicks. Now, his opinion is a whole different story. He now thought of them as the scum of earthland, something that needed to be purged out of existence. Despite his intense feelings, He sat patiently and waited. Hayden really wanted to get out of there, his body longed for the feeling of the sun's rays, but he wouldn't and he couldn't. His body was too damaged to make a one-manned escape.

He needed help.

So when the faint sounds of heels against the stone floor came to life, Hayden smiled in relief. A woman's voice hummed an unrecognizable tune, growing louder the closer she came. Hayden looked up as she sauntered up to his cell, and gave a coy smile.

"Took you long enough, Melinda."

"Just be grateful I even bothered to check up on you, you fool." She scoffed. Melinda on the taller side, standing at the height of five foot eight and had curves all in the right places. She was albino, her snowy hair curled around her face beautifully and pinkish-red eyes narrowed down at the red head. Her attire contrasted the doom and gloom setting of basement; a short blue sleeveless dress with a high-class waist jacket, ankle boots, and a small sun hat, that she carried on her left hand. She smirked, tapping the cell bars with her closed parasol.

"Now get up, we'll have to hurry if we don't want to be caught."

"Hey!"

Melinda turned her attention to the sudden shout, six cells down was a blonde male, looking shocked and angry at the same time.

"What do you think you're doing?!" He yelled.

"Leaving, that's what!" Hayden yelled back, smiling all the way.

"Not if I got anything to say about it!"

 **Boom!**

The bars to the other's cell dented from a magic fueled kick. Hayden turned hurriedly to Melinda.

"Now's the time to get me outta here!" He yelled. Melinda frowned.

"Shut up and relax." She said. She tapped the parasol against one metal bar.

" **Oris heit**." She chanted. The metal bars disintegrated into a fine violet mist, leaving a accent space where the door was.

"Now let's go."

* * *

Jacken kicked at the cell bars again, sound bouncing violently off the metal. He grimaced as he went for it again. He wasn't going to let Hayden get away. With a final roar, the cell bars shattered, flying across the room in a burst of bright light. Jacken scrambled to his feet and rushed out, just as he saw Hayden look over to him with a cocky smile.

"Hey, stop!" Jacked ordered. The lady besides Hayden turned elegantly to face him, twirling her parasol, before pointing it at Jacken. Magical energy shot from the tip like a loaded gun. Sipping through the air towards its intended destination- Jacken's forehead. Seeing the incoming disaster, the blonde raised his cuffed hands on instinct. There was a powerful Zap! Then the clanking of metal.

"Huh? Sweet!" The cuffs on Jacken's hands hand taken the shot and laid dismantled on the ground. He looked up and smiled, and giving the others no time to move, ran at them at lightning speed. Hayden yelped as Melinda pushed him back, watching as she met Jacken head on. They met near the center of the hallway, their meeting causing a medium sized dent in the floor beneath them. Spider cracks traveled up and down the floor and ceiling, debris lifting in the air like it was in zero gravity. Jacken growled, hands blocking the parasol from nearing his face.

"Who are you!" He asked. The woman was silent, light silvery curls dancing around her pinkish eyes. The only thing Jacken got out of her was a smirk followed by the buildup of energy from the parasol, that exploded and sent Jacken flying back ten feet. He hit the ground hard, dust and debris invading his lungs. Jacken coughed violently, waving his hand at the dust cloud, before popping back onto his feet. Jacken looked around quickly, eyeing the long shards of metal, then picking them up.

"Take this!" He yelled. He threw them at Hayden and the woman at break-neck speed. Each piece streaking through the like hail. The woman opened her parasol, deflecting each metal scrap with grace, almost as if she was showing off. Jacken growled picking up more scraps and targeted specifically her, arms throwing with insane speed. She smiled at the incoming hail of steel deflect with her parasol until it was too much for her. She dodged, twirling and grabbing hold of Hayden at the same time. She landed in a play with her parasol closed. Jacken was seething. Who did this woman think she was?!

"Biiitch!" Jacken roared, rocketing forward with an run. The woman quickly wrapped an arm around Hayden's bruises waist, twirling the parasol before stabbing it at the ground.

" **Und wil mak neil escapoda**!" The ancient incantation flew from the woman's lips. She gave one last smirk as violet and white magic wrapped around Hayden and her like ribbons. Time seemed to slow as Jacken's fist was inches away from the woman face before- **Whoosh** **!**

Both were gone.

The momentum from his run sent Jacken flying forward. He spun around and skidded backward, hand and feet kicking up gravel into the air. Once he stopped he darted his head from side to side, frantic to spot his enemies.

"What-Where'd they go?!"

Suddenly, The door to the main room burst open and the clanking bodies of soldiers rushed in. Jacken spun around in surprise. They looked as if they'd taken a pretty hard beating. Armor dented in a few places, and dirt stains everywhere. One pointed straight at him.

"Seize him! He's trying to escape!" He commanded.  
"Aw shit."

* * *

 **I'm glad that's over with! All those Latin looking words were just made up gibberish, no hidden meaning there!**

 **I can't wait to write the next chapter, so until then-**

 **Ja ne~**


	14. Chapter 14

**Author's Note: Good God this chapter took a lot of thought out of me, one of the first times I edited a piece of writing outside of school. So while I recuperate my brain for a bit, enjoy this chapter!  
**

* * *

I sat up from the hospital bed numb, tired, but alive. Time was a concept that past right through my head at the moment, and it took a look at the clock to remind me how long I was out for. The pain and soreness that I had felt a while back had dulled down by then. Although it lingered, it was enough for me to tolerate. My vision swam as one by one, I moved my legs from the lavender scented sheets to the floor. The surface was cold as ice, despite the warm temperature in the room, jolting my worn body and mind awake. I hissed, missing the comforting warmth for my shoes when I realized that my possessions were in fact missing. My head darted around, startled.

Where in the hell were my things?!

After a brief second of hyperventilating I caught the sight of my boots. They were tucked in the corner by the window with my backpack next to them. I smiled lightly, thanking the nurse for not snooping through my things. I was quick to put them on, balance swaying a bit because of my numbness, then quietly I tiptoed out of the room and silently closed the door.

If what Teri told me was true, then I had to hurry. Only God knows what the sick bastards were doing to my teammates.

It didn't take me long to find the elevators, they were only a ten seconds down and past a corridor, though they did look kind of primitive. I glanced warily as I pushed the up button, hearing the loud clanking of metal. If this elevator malfunctioned, I'd have a fit. To my scarce luck, nothing happened after ascending to the third floor. The only problem that came to mind was when the metal doors opened, revealing the heavily armed military personnel guarding the floor. The one second chime alerted three guards at the nearest room, who turned their heads to see me staring at them with a shocked look. They weren't pleased.

"What are you doing here?" One of them asked. He was big, as almost every other soldier behind him. His armor wasn't as heavy as I suspected, it looked rather light and suited for better mobility. His face was square and had a weird protruding nose that was very funny looking, which made it increasingly hard to drown my laughter.

"This floor has been sectioned off from the public!" My eyes darted between the three of them. I only had one shot at this, and I had to make myself seem at least a bit convincing.

"But my Mom's here! My dad said that I could see her!" I exclaimed, putting on a front of a whiny teen. The soldier looked back at me with a confused expression, hand inching towards his weapon ever so subtly.

"Your father allowed you to see your mother in the hospital, AFTER a major terrorist attack?" I could hear the incredulous tone in the muffled voice, and cursed at my luck. They caught my bluff, one that I'd even say that wasn't good. I looked at him then at the rest down the hall and sucked a breath in It was quite obvious that the only thing out of this was going to be violence. Which meant that my cloths were going to be more wrecked and more injuries were going to be added onto an already stressed body.

Joy.

There was no reason to go back, leaving meant betraying my teammates and I didn't want to do that. So quickly and a bit reluctantly I made up my mind, telling myself that these people were just obstacles in my path, obstacles that needed to be removed permanently.

Without any giving thought I jumped at them, not giving each one time to collect themselves, unsheathing two kunai from their pouches in one fluid motion. A strained gurgle erupted out of the right one's throat as the sharp end of my kunai sunk in deep into tender flesh. I held on for a few seconds before using the weapon as leverage to swing off, ripping it out to latch on to the closest soldier. The enemy spun as he made grabs at my body, but I maneuvered myself out of the way like a spider until I managed to squeezed my legs securely around his waist. The kunai wasted no time and plunged itself in through the opening that separated the helmet from the rest of the armor. The soldier gurgled in pain, still struggling to use his hands to pry me off. However, I held on him with a vice grip while hearing the third soldier scream,

"Get off of him!" My eyes snapped to the other soldiers in the room, who began to charge at me after seeing the violence beholding them. I twisted the kunai in the throat of my captive before jumping off of him, landing with one knee to the ground.

This was about to get a whole lot bloody.

I resorted into taijutsu alone since I didn't want the hospital to collapse in flames and risk the lives of the citizens on each floor, but it was tempting even as I slammed one guy's head through a glass window. After taking down four others and taking only minor injuries I could tell that the soldiers were majorly trained with weapons, since when I disarmed them they came at me with lackluster punches and kicks. If this were one on one, I'd pulverize them into mincemeat. However since there were a multitude of fists threatening to break me in half, I had the serious disadvantage here. I needed to improvise and fast. So I spun around one, missing a roundhouse kick to the face, and took a strange looking baton from the belt on his waist. With a flick of my wrist it came to life, electricity coursing through the shaft in a pulsing sound. I jumped back and gazed at the new weapon with sudden curiosity and amazement. A wicked smile appeared onto my lips. I was so taking this with me!

I decided to test it out, side-stepping and dodging until the tip of the baton hit an exposed joint of one. Even though he had protective clothing underneath that armor, nothing stopped that stream of electricity go into his body. The effects were immediate, stalling him mid-step and causing a loud shriek before he dropped. My head was knocked to the side by an unsuspecting punch, and I answered back with a baton to the back knee. A hand pushed me violently against a door causing it to burst open, and the scream of a doctor and a patient to fill the air as I fell in. Somehow I managed to dodge a sword to the face by rolling away, apologizing to the onlookers in the room. I stopped, realizing that I was trapped in, since three soldiers were blocking the doorway and one had started to charge at me. Thinking fast, I jumped onto the medical counter, missing the swipe of a sword before I jumped, using the shoulder of the soldier as a footstool and leaped away. Though I did get nicked in the legs by the three other soldiers, I managed to evade them and roll into the hall. With no time to spare I scrambled onto my feet and ran as the remaining soldiers chased me.

"Stop him!" The closest yelled. My attention shifted forward and my gaze came across another soldier, who was guarding a door. I nearly skidded to a halt when I spotted a weapon his hands. It was a gun! Before I could asses the situation the shot rang out. With a stroke of luck I used my fast reflexes sliding down on my knees, barely missing the speeding piece of metal from blowing my head into chunks. As time slowed I tilted my head back, and I saw not a bullet, but a dart of some kind that whizzed past me, stabbing the chestplate of the soldier behind me. Time resumed, allowing me to jump to my feet and tackle the soldier that nearly shot me. With one electric baton to the neck and two quick jabs at his knees, the soldier slumped. I looked back up and realized that I only had a split second to get into the room behind me, or get turned into a splatter on the wall. So, I followed my instinct and jump back into the room, slamming and locking the door in a flurry of rushed movements. I leaned against the smooth wood and sighed. I knew that this door wouldn't hold long but, hopefully long enough.

"Kouki?!" A baritone voice called in utter surprise. I looked over my shoulder and saw Anti, his sister, and Uja. They all were cuffed to their individual beds and had bandages covering various places of their bodies. Realizing that my friends weren't racked with grave injuries, I took a huge sigh of relief.

"What's going on out there? It sounds like a madhouse!" Anti's sister, Tasha, yelled. I smiled sheepishly and shrugged my shoulders, ignoring the blood that had decorated my clothes. I did my best to tell all of them what happened in the increasingly rushed manner, but all that came out was a blubbering mess of syllables. I coughed and heaved, my body finally responding to all the unwanted movement of before. I pointed at the chains fastening their limbs to the beds, asking if they needed any help but Anti turned down the offer. In a matter of fact, they all did.

"No, we can handle these." Anti reassured. I was a skeptic at first, but it was soon blown out of the water when the chains ripped off like they were paper. My mouth hung open with a mix of amazement and confusion, as the metal clattered to the ground, allowing their former captives to rise to their feet. A million questions ran through my mind, a million questions that I highly doubted that anyone would answer"H-how?" I asked, utterly bewildered. Anti hissed, feet protesting the weight pressing hard on them. He had luckily caught himself on the bed before he tripped. I winced in sympathy. There was no way he could walk on his own.

" That's an explanation for another time." He groaned. His sister, Tasha, was right by his side. She helped him to a steady balance before looking at me with a concerned face.

"By the way, do you know what became of our friends?"

"That's the thing I-" A loud bang interrupted me mid-sentence. I spun around and backed away from the door quickly, watching as it trembled with each thunderous boom. I blanched, realizing that the lock wouldn't hold on forever.

"Oh no, They're gonna break in! We need to leave now!" I yelled, looking around for an exit. My eyes caught sight of one, one exit that was sealed strong metal bars.

The window.

I groaned in anger. How were we going to get out?! More importantly, how was Anti going to get out in his condition? Luckily Uja had an idea. Whatever it was I couldn't tell, he was too busy marching over to their strewn about belongings to care. Uja crouched quickly and opened his knitted bag, searching around for something important. I watched in confused silence, wondering what was happening as the bangs on the door grew louder. When Uja came up for air, he had a strange vial in his hands. In the vial was a mysterious looking red liquid. Tasha seemed to know what it was, as she gasped, glaring at Uja an expression that could be explained in three words:

Don't You Dare.

Uja ignored it, in fact he popped the cork and took a mighty swig, red dribble running down the stubble on his chin. Tasha was up on her feet by then, marching over to swipe the vial from his hands, and he let her. Tasha glared at him one more time before closing the vial and stuffing it back in a bag, her bag.

"What was that?" I asked, wariness clear in my voice. Tasha closed the bag in her hands, strapping it over her shoulder while squinting her eyes at Uja.

" _That._ " She hissed. "Is a potion Kouki, one that's supposed to increase a user's magical power by fifteen percent." The explanation surprised me. A potion that could increase a person's power? The Naruto verse had something similar to those, but in pill form. But too much use could result in something bad to the user, was that the same here? I asked my question, curiosity laced in every word, while near the window Uja conjured a spell that was different than the others. I listened to Tasha's explanation half halfheartedly, too busy looking at the hand Uja pressed against the barred window. I watched as red magic ate away at the glass and metal, like some kind of corrosive acid. In a matter of seconds all of the window was gone, whisked away in a cloud of bright red particles.

"Are you even listening to me?!" Tasha yelled, waving a hand in front of my face. I snapped out of my stupor, looking at an annoyed Tasha and a secretly smug Uja, who was leaning by the open window.

"Now's the time for us to leave, we have a perfect opportunity!" Uja barked, thumbing at the window next to him. Tasha spun around and growled, ready to snap back a snarky comment when-

The door flew open, off its hinges, and nearly decapitating me.

Luckily for me I ducked, hitting the ground as the large piece of wood made contact with the opposite wall, knocking over various medical equipment with it. Standing breathlessly at the door was a soldier, mask off and with rage filled in his eyes.

"Get them!"

I felt a hand push me away, sending me tumbling to the left as Tasha extended her hand. An invisible concussive blast sent the soldier and those behind him flying backward, smacking hard against the wall and metal armor crinkling from the force. I stared in surprise as another hand, a burly hand, grabbed me. Looking up I saw Anti and Tasha give each other a silent look before nodding. Anti, who now wrapped his arm around my waist, ran straight at the open window, despite his incredibly injured feet.

"What are you doing?!" I screamed, feeling the weightlessness of air as I was thrown out the window, and into the early morning mind was screaming for its dear life as I plummeted, heart clenching hard inside my chest as if it was going to burst. Since we were only on the third floor, and the ground was approaching fast I closed my eyes, expecting to fall flat on my face. Except, it didn't happen.

"What the..." The thought escaped my mouth as I slowly opened my eyes. A yellow disc was right beneath me, keeping my body at least ten feet from the ground. I looked around, finding that Uja, Teri, and Anti had landed safely around me, Anti looking the most tired out of all of them. Sweat trickled down his brown skin as he held his hands out. They were trembling with strain and quivered once, causing the disc beneath us to dip. My breath hitched, feeling my stomach rise to my chest, and I nearly vomited from the unwanted motion.

"They're down there!" A soldier yelled from the room we jumped from. Uja huffed, glaring at Anti in annoyance.

"Get us outta here!" He yelled. Anti nodded and closed his eyes with a strained look. The disc sped upward, nearly crashing into a tree, before it was up high in the sky. I laid there, planted on the surface as I watched buildings fly by at incredible speeds. We were on our way.

"I thought you only had force field powers!" I yelled, looking at Anti while holding on for dear life. He shook his head, arms still held out in front of him.

"I've gotten creative over the years. Force-fields can be quite repetitive anyway." He grinned, masking the pain that was clearly shown by the rest of his body. Anti fell to one knee, the yellow disc swerving sharply to the left. We all lurched in surprise, Tasha nearly falling off but luckily saved by Uja. Anti was heaving and looking incredibly more tired.

"We," He began, taking a gulp of air. "We need to hurry, I don't know how long I can hold this for." Anti looked down at me, his bushy hair blown back by the wind, and gave me a strained expression.

"Where exactly are we going?" He asked. My head shot up at the question and I scoured my brain for the answer. Unfortunately, I didn't have any clue. All that Teri said was that she and the others were captured somewhere, and he didn't know exactly where.

"I've got no-"

My attention was torn from my teammates as my head turned towards the sound of an explosion.

"-idea." I finished my sentence, watching a dark cloud billow out from a fortified building. If that fire said anything, then we knew it had to be a work of a mage. We didn't say anything for a whole minute.

"Do you think?"

"I'm getting the same idea." Tasha replied. We all looked at each other for a split second.

"Anti, full speed ahead."

* * *

The explosion shocked everyone, especially the ones in the interrogation room. The tremor rocked Ablan and Teri in their seats and nearly knocked over their interrogator. The man caught his balance on the table and after the shocks subsided, angrily shot up, carefully combed hair now all over the place. His eyes were full of fury, unlike the composed stare before hand.

"You!" He shouted, pointing his finger sharply at the stationed guard next to the door. "Go and find out what's happening!"

"Sir!" The soldier saluted before rushing out into the chaos outside. Ablan and Teri looked at each other with concerned looks. This was the perfect time to make their escape. The only question was whether they would act upon it. Luckily, they wouldn't have to wait long enough to sort it out. The door burst open, revealing the same soldier. He rushed in out of breath.

"Sir, the prisoners escaped!" He reported. "They've bombed the front!"

"What?!"

* * *

The front of the security station was left utterly in shambles. Concrete and glass were scattered about, burnt and melted from the second explosion. Standing in front of the decimated entrance was one angry red head who, despite his injuries, conjured another ball of flames in both of his hands. Walking up to him like a force of nature was Melinda who, was very tired of his shit.

"It's time to leave Hayden." Melinda grabbed hold of his shoulder, squeezing it harshly. "Now." The word jabbed at Hayden, who snapped back at her, angered that she would even think of such a thing.

"No!" He growled, shrugging away the unwanted touch before stomping towards a debris covered policeman, who had somehow survived the explosion. " Not until they pay!" Hayden yelled, grabbing the poor man by the shirt and lifting his broken body in the air. Hayden chuckled at the expression of fear on the poor man's face. Melinda rolled her eyes, this rage of his would end badly.

Specifically for him.

But she wouldn't bother him, letting him vent his anger out would be better for both of them in the long run. So Melinda watched, she watched and waited as the policeman was wasted away under the destructive fingers of pain and fire. She felt for the poor soul, she really did. The death was cruel and unusual for her standards, the most pain she ever enacted into her targets was only if they were despicable enough or just aggravated her. But what was done was done, and had to be ended quickly. Reinforcements would come and when they saw what Hayden did, the fury unleashed on them would likely be devastating.

"You bastards!"

The voice startled Melinda from her thoughts, causing her attention to snap upward. She watched as a yellow disk closed in on them fast. Riding on top of it were some very angry people. People that looked angry enough to kill.

"Hayden! Knock it off!" Melinda warned, just as the youngest jumped off of the disk and plummeted,sword drawn and ready. Hayden caught the warning at the last minute and looked up, just in time to catch the gleam of metal before everything turned white. The move was quick, flashing by in a split second, but the damage was already done. Hayden dropped the burnt man and cover his eyes in utter agony, stumbling back before crashing down onto his side. The child, that landed right into a battle stance, stood up proud, confident, and utterly seething.

"So you're the one who's been causing all of this destruction?!" The kid barked, voice a lot lower that what Melinda had suspected. As she watched the child stalk forward she knew that there was only one way that this could end. She needed to act now and fast, or her responsibility would be reduced to ribbons in a blink of an eye. The incantation she whispered under her breath enveloped her in the same purple ribbons as before, transporting her right in front of the currently incapacitated partner, while giving his attacker quite the surprise.

"Out of the way lady!" He warned, brandishing his sword in the gleaming sunlight. Melinda's eyebrows raised slightly. No one ever reacted to her appearance like that. Usually when she appeared the average person would yelp and cower back in uncertainty and fear. This child was an anomaly, one that she would like to look into sometime later. Unfortunately, that time wouldn't be here. She smiled, twirling her parasol in her hands.

"I'm afraid I can't do that kid, you see I need him alive. Partners and all." She explained, adding a small smile for extra measures. The kid wasn't having any of it and made a deliberate swat at her. Melinda dodged the attack quite easily, but with a huge amount of disgust welding up in her chest. She narrowed her eyes at the small boy, inwardly dismantling the move he made on her. He didn't even give her a passing glance! It was like she was some sort easy obstacle to get through! Angered thoughts in mind she blocked a new move easily with her parasol's closed canopy. The block surprised him, and the shock on his face only continued to fuel the new smile deepening into her bones. Their weapons locked and Melinda leaned in to offer him some choice advice.

"Don't try anything stupid son, you're no match for me." She warned as the lock broke. Melinda glanced behind her and saw that fortunately, Hayden was no longer writhing in complete and utter pain. He was still hurting, if the pained and uneasy gasps weren't an obvious clue. However he was on one knee, with a hand covering his eyes and a frustrated frown clearly on his lips. It took him some time but he eventually stood back onto his two feet. Hayden was seething, staggering back and forth all the while spewing profanities out of his mouth. Each quivering footstep neared him to Melinda's position, but still a bit off. He roared out into the open, for the person who blinded him to come out so that he'd rip him to shreds.

The child happily obliged, digging an imaginary thorn into Hayden's side.

Hayden was quick to recognize the voice and, as if he could see again, broke forward with haste.

"I'll disembowel you!" He roared. Melinda stepped in, blocking the man with her parasol, just as fire began to envelope his form. Hayden faltered in his steps and growled at Melinda's general direction. Melinda slapped her parasol against Hayden's chest in bitter annoyance and countered the growl with a remark.

"We don't have time for this." Her blue orbs narrowed at Hayden, believing that her stare was hard enough for him to get the message. Turns out she wasn't the only one who agreed to her sentiments. Melinda looked up to see the yellow disc from earlier lower, down enough for the rest of the others to jump off. Well except for the larger one, who collapsed into a sweaty heap on the ground. The female of the group quickly was by the guy's side. She looked up at the others with a concerned look. The woman then began to berate the kid in his actions, while the words seemed to fall on deaf ears, the twitch of his eye made it seem that he heard every word of it.

"Your friend's right, no need to cause any more trouble for yourself." Melinda added on, pushing back the weighing force that was Hayden, who still had the intent of tearing them limb from limb. Melinda looked around, sweat dribbling down her face. She needed a distraction, one that would allow her and Hayden some time to escape. Luckily and unluckily for her, she had a newfound situation that brought their attention out to someone else. Three mages bursted out of the burning hole in the building, running down the steps in a matching pace. They stopped, surveying the damage before landing eyes on her. The tall blonde on the right widened his eyes at her.

"You!" Melinda instantly recognized the voice and sighed. It was the blonde from the underground cells, lively as ever. "You aren't getting away this time!"

An auburn male growled in frustration, shouting a protest as the blonde zipped towards Melinda, a streak of gold the only thing she tracked before he appeared inches away. Melinda's reflexes took over her, parasol blocking the sudden attack, while leaving Hayden the perfect opportunity to begin a new wave of destruction. With a malicious smile he gladly took it, supercharging another blast of fire in his hands. The stream of flames rocketed from his outward, locking on the small group of mages away from them. They managed to jump out of the way, just in time at the fire blew up the ground behind them. Dirt and stone rained down, mixing with the raging licks of fire. The new blast of heat singed against the skins of everyone, including the large group of policemen and soldiers that had rushed out at that moment.

"Really?!" Melinda growled, butting the end of her parasol on the chin of the blonde. The attack cracked against the hard bone, fracturing it as he flew back. "You just HAD to go and do that!" she yelled. Her burst of frustration was short lived as Jacken came back, barraging her with a monstrous load of speedy kicks. She managed to swat him away again and look back at her blind friend. Hayden wasn't listening to her and continued his onslaught of destruction, burning everything in the vicinity. Melinda guessed that being blind had rendered her friend into a psychotic mess, one that she would have to clean up after. The chaos among st them was interrupted by the collective clangs of metal. Melina looked up at the steps watched as soldiers came rushing out of the burnt opening. With singe marks and scratches Melinda stepped back and wrapped her arm around Hayden's waist.

This called for drastic measures.

" **Er nunc di eist**!" Angelica brought back her free hand, as if she were going to throw something, before swinging forth.A burst of purple energy exploded from it, expanding quickly and lifting all the oncoming threats into the air. It caused a knock-back of epic proportions, sending a load of dirt and slamming against any building in its path. Being at the center had its benefits, and Angelica would use them to their fullest. So she spun around quickly, disorienting Hayden and using the perfect distraction to disappear for good, in a trail of glowing ribbons.

* * *

The blast of energy contributed heavily to the damage that was already done to the area, adding more cracks and holes to the security station than anyone would've liked. In the long silence that followed, among the unconscious and entangled bodies, Jacken made his first move. He rose to his feet street, short hair a mess, caked with dust and bits of stone. His track suit also sported nasty rips and tears all over, and despite his best attempts of brushing the dust off, it was stuck there. He looked over, through the thick fog of dust, to the steps where Ablan and Teri lay. They had collapsed in a heap, dangerously near a group of soldiers who were clearly out of commission. Jacken, seeing the brief signs of life, decided to limp over their with haste. With a limp he went over, hissing with every step, getting to them in record time and shaking them violently. With a whisper, he begged for them to get up, begged so that they wouldn't be found out by the soldiers laying all around situation was bad and it would only get worse when the rest of the military men wake up.

They needed to leave and fast.

Ablan's eyes fluttered open and after taking a huge gulp of air, coughed violently in the dust infused air. Teri was up not too soon after, blinking the spots out of her eyes before surveying the damage around them. With haste Jacken got them to their feet, telling them his view on the situation as they silently rushed over to the rest of the group.

"Where did that lady go?" Teri asked in a hushed tone.

"You mean the one that as protecting that flaming bastard? She that weird teleportation magic of hers." Jacken growled, as he neared a hurting but alive Kouki. The child seemed to have recently gotten up, kneeling heavily against his short sword, as if it was a cane. Jacken rushed over to him, slowly helping him up and noticing the winces of pain that flashed across his face.

"You okay?" Jacken asked. Kouki flashed a sarcastic smile.

"I've never felt better."

"Good." Ablan began while helping up a confused Uja up to his feet. "Because we have to leave, now." Teri narrowed her eyes from where she stood after hearing Ablan's decree.

"Since when were you so keen on leaving?" She asked. Ablan all but ignored her, checking on Anti and Tasha before glancing back at Teri's direction.

"Not until now." He explained. Kouki stretched carefully before taking a look around, whistled and shook his head. The damage was far greater than he thought. It almost rivaled the destruction from the day before. But it was best to book it before the others woke up.

"That might be a problem." Tasha began, rubbing a hand on the back of her brother, who was clearly having trouble standing properly. "Anti's to hurt to continue. At this rate he'll only slow the group down!" The burly man leaning lightly against Tasha shot her a glare, one that she ignored entirely. What she said was true, whether he liked it or not.

"She is not wrong." Anti begrudgingly agreed, looking down at the broken ground. "But how would I be able to go back in this condition! I doubt I'll even make it half way without collapsing! And even if I make it back...how will the tribe react?" Anti wondered, brow furrowed in worry. Tasha went right to work, trying to lift up his spirits as Ablan hummed to himself. He knew of only one way to get them back closer to home, a way that would certainly tire him out considerably.

"I know how to get you back." Ablan blurted out. Anti and Tasha looked at him with interest, though Ablan shook his head lightly. "Not all the way back but, a distance more comfortable. Teleportation."

"Oh yeah that! I almost forgot you could even do that, with your rings and all." Jacken exclaimed in remembrance. Ablan frowned, blocking out the obscure blonde.

"I can only transport three at a time, but.." He looked back at the others and sighed. "It looks like I'll be making more than one trip it seems. So," Ablan placed both hands on Tasha and Anti's shoulders, closing his eyes he concentrated. There was a moment of silence before he spoke.

"It was nice meeting you." He parted. Anti and Tasha shared a small smile before disappearing in a flash of light. It took a moment for him to stand up, but he did. And when he turned around, he made his way towards the rest of the group, beckoning for them to stand close and touch both of his hands. Jacken awkwardly shuffled in his feet, unnerved by how close everyone was to him.

"Is this even necessary?" He asked. Ablan opened one eye to gaze at him with amusement.

"Yes it is Jacken, so be still so I can concentrate."

"Could you concentrate faster, I think they're starting to wake up!" Kouki blurted out, pointing to the scattered bodies that were starting to stir. Ablan frowned, turning his attention towards Teri.

"Could you try and pinpoint a location near to where we need to go?" He asked. Teri nodded before closing her eyes. She concentrated, letting her mind drift from her body to scour the world. Her consciousness drifter through the air, blitzing buy building after building until she reached the waters bordering Bosco to Seven. It only took her seconds to make it across the long stretch of water and once she landed on the other side, the overwhelming sense of dread and despair overwhelmed her. It seemed like this country was in a worse state than Bosco, though the thought shouldn't have surprised her. She shook her head and continued on, she needed to find anything that would lead the group to their next destination. Any speck of thought would do wonders for her.

That's she felt it, a wave of intense emotional pain and suffering bleeding out from somewhere along the rocky coast. Teri smiled but then realized how long the distance was. Ablan never teleported such a distance before. The amount of magical energies that was needed would most likely put him out of commission for a while, not if he didn't die from it. Teri had no time to dwell on the fact, since she felt a tug on her physical body. It was time to move, consequences be damned.

"Brace yourselves!" She yelled through her physical body before giving Ablan the closest possible location to teleport to: A desolate field on the outskirts of a town. Ablan grimaced as white light began to form around them "This will definitely be unpleasant" He muttered.

"Get us out of here!" Kouki exclaimed, eyes widening at the woke bodies of the soldiers.

"Gladly." Ablan grunted, summoning all the magic from his reserves. The light was brighter than before, surrounding the group in a circle. There was a slight whirring sound until it flashed, whisking the group away and leaving no trace of them except for their foot prints.

* * *

 **So one of my reviewers made an interesting point about last chapter. The reason why I focused heavily on the side characters was to just flesh them out more, give them more personality. I know that it may seem redundant at first to focus of these groups of characters but, I have a lot in store for them.**

 **You'll just have to wait and see.**

 _ **Ja Ne~**_


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